This SBIR proposal describes the development of an approach to immunoprophylaxis against ricin toxin. We plan to produce a ricin toxoid vaccine for the development human monoclonal antibodies against ricin toxoid vaccine and use this vaccine for invitro stimulation of human lymphocytes tha secrete antibodies against ricin toxin. In Phase II, human hybridomas secreting monoclonal antibodies against ricin toxin would be producded by fusing EBV-transformed lymphocytes to the heteromyeloma fusion partner SHM-D33. Neutralizing monocionai antibodies are expected to be useful for both the prophylaxis and therapy of ricin poisoning.
Benefits: A safe and efficacious method of immunoprophylaxis against ricin would be an important deterrent against the use of ricin by military or terrorist forces as a biological warfare threat agent. There are no direct or well recognized commercial applications for this research.
Keywords: ricin monocionai antibody vaccine toxin toxoid
