Patent ID: 8198020

Claim:
A method of selecting a compound that enhances phagocytosis of target cells, comprising steps of: contacting a population of target cells with a candidate compound not found in nature, the candidate compound comprising (i) a cell-binding moiety and (ii) a phagocytic marker, wherein the cell-binding moiety and phagocytic marker are linked; contacting the target cells with a population of phagocytic cells; comparing the degree of phagocytosis of the target cells by the phagocytic cells with the degree of phagocytosis of a comparable population of target cells that were not exposed to the candidate compound but were also exposed to phagocytic cells under similar conditions; and selecting the candidate compound as a compound that enhances phagocytosis of target cells if the degree of phagocytosis of target cells that were contacted with the candidate compound is greater than the degree of phagocytosis of target cells that were not contacted with the candidate compound, wherein the cell-binding moiety is an antibody and the phagocytic marker is linked to the Fc domain of the antibody.