Interestingly, a subset of these toxins interact with very well conserved and universally expressed cellular proteins. Immunotoxins are targeted to kill cancer cells expressing particular surface antigens or receptors. However, furin is expressed by all cells and tissues. In this way, we can redesign immunotoxins to be more selective for killing cancer cells. Currently we are trying to understand the mechanism of cell-mediated toxin reduction.
Several projects are underway that use toxin sequences for the development of therapeutic agents.
To produce an HIV vaccine we are using non-lethal PE as an immunogenic carrier for the V3 loop of gp120. The translocating domain of PE is being investigated for its ability to increase the efficiency of DNA transfer. Pastan, I et al. FitzGerald DJ et al. Chiron MF et al.