SAB Biotherapeutics (SAB) announced results from a project in collaboration with CSL (CSL), confirming that SAB's DiversitAb platform can generate functional fully-human anti-idiotype polyclonal antibodies that can effectively target and neutralize autoantibodies associated with autoimmune diseases. Autoantibodies are immune system proteins that can mistakenly target the body's own organs and tissues. Autoantibodies can target almost every part of the body and are found in a wide range of autoimmune diseases, such as lupus, autoimmune hepatitis, aplastic anemia, and rheumatoid arthritis among many others.

In this project with CSL, SAB's DiversitAb platform used a specific autoantibody associated with neuromyelitis optica (NMO) to successfully develop a functional and diverse anti-idiotype polyclonal antibody treatment that was able to bind to the NMO antibody and neutralize it in vitro and in vivo. Anti-idiotypic polyclonal antibodies are highly specialized antibodies that bind to other antibodies specifically “bad acting” antibodies associated with many autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes, NMO or systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).