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Cytheris is a biopharmaceutical company developing recombinant
human interleukin-7 (IL-7) for immune reconstitution in severely immunodepressed subjects such as :
- Patients having received a bone marrow or haematopoietic stem cell transplant.
- HIV-infected patients.
IL-7 is a cytokine involved in the key stages of T-lymphocytes genesis in human.
It is an essential growth factor for the proliferation and maturation of lymphocyte precursors as well
as for the acquisition of diversity in naive CD4 and D8 T-cell populations. IL-7 is also involved in
the production of memory T-cells.
Taken as a whole, the basic and the preclinical research, as well as the first clinical
results for IL-7 suggest that it could become a blockbuster pharmaceutical product, like EPO (a red
blood cell growth factor) or G-CSF (a neutrophil growth factor). As IL-7 is a cytokine activating the
specific immune response, it could also be exploited in combination with therapeutic vaccines.
Several Phase I/II clinical trials of IL-7 are currently underway both in France
and in the United States, in collaboration with the ANRS, the NCI and NIAIDS.
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