A therapeutic application for organ- and tissue-targeting antibodies conjugated with a toxic agent is for the ablation of certain normal cells and tissues as part of another therapeutic strategy, such as in bone marrow ablation with antibodies against bone marrow cells of particular stages of development and differentiation, and in the cytotoxic ablation of the spleen in patients with lymphoma or certain immune diseases, such as immune thrombocytopenic purpura.

The present invention relates to methods of delivering pharmaceutical agents across membranes, including the skin layer or mucosal membranes of a patient. A pharmaceutical agent is covalently bonded to a chemical modifier, via a physiologically cleavable bond, such that the membrane transport and delivery of the agent is enhanced.

The invention provides the use of a composition comprising an antibody or fragment specific to a growth factor receptor or hormone receptor on a targeted non-malignant cell in a mammalian subject, wherein said antibody or fragment affects the function and proliferation of said cell, in the manufacture of a medicament for affecting a function of said cell.

The invention provides the use of an antibody or antibody fragment which specifically binds a marker produced by or associated with a cell or tissue in an organ of interest, said antibody or antibody fragment being labelled with a radioisotope or with a magnetic resonance image enhancing agent capable of external detection, in the manufacture of a medicament for use in a method of imaging hypoplastic, anatomically displaced or ectopic cells or tissues in a mammalian subject by scintigraphic or magnetic resonance imaging, wherein the amount of the labelled antibody or antibody fragment is sufficient to permit a scintigraphic image or an enhanced magnetic resonance image of said organ to be obtained. Also provided is a kit for use in such methods.

This invention provides a method of treating encephalitis or encephalopathy secondary to CNS infection by administration of therapeutically effective amounts of compositions which inhibit the release of platelet activation factor and/or arachidonate metabolites. The invention also provides methods for screening for compounds that have neuroprotective activity wherein the methods comprise infecting monocytes or lymphocytes with an infectious organism known to cause neural damage, adding the resulting infected culture to a culture of astrocyte cells, adding a test compound, allowing sufficient time to pass for the production of TNF-alpha, withdrawing aliquotes from the supernatant of the culture, adding the aliquotes to cultures of neural cells and identifying which supernatants impart a neuroprotective effect.

Disclosed are substances useful for proliferating T cells and inhibiting tumor growth, comprising a polymer backbone or microbead adsorbed to or conjugated with binding molecules which preferably target the CD3 or CD28 antigen on T cells, or other T cell antigens, and which is administered in vivo. The binding molecule may be a whole antibody or a fragment thereof which preferably lacks an Fc portion, and in either case should not induce immunosuppression or T cell depletion. Specific examples include a latex macrosphere conjugated with, or a polylactide microsphere adsorbed to, an anti-CD28 antibody of F(ab')2 fragment thereof and/or an F(ab')2 fragment of an anti-CD3 antibody.

Methods and compositions for treating Cystic Fibrosis by mobilizing mutant forms of CFTR, which retain at least some functional activity, to the plasma membrane where they can mediate chloride ion transport are disclosed.