Patent Application
20070294069
The present application is related to, claims the earliest available effective filing date(s) from (e.g., claims earliest available priority dates for other than provisional patent applications; claims benefits under 35 USC § 119(e) for provisional patent applications), and incorporates by reference in its entirety all subject matter of the following listed application(s) (the “Related Applications”); the present application also claims the earliest available effective filing date(s) from, and also incorporates by reference in its entirety all subject matter of any and all parent, grandparent, great-grandparent, etc. applications of the Related Application(s). The United States Patent Office (USPTO) has published a notice to the effect that the USPTO's computer programs require that patent applicants reference both a serial number and indicate whether an application is a continuation or continuation in part. The present applicant entity has provided below a specific reference to the application(s) from which priority is being claimed as recited by statute. Applicant entity understands that the statute is unambiguous in its specific reference language and does not require either a serial number or any characterization such as “continuation” or “continuation-in-part.” Notwithstanding the foregoing, applicant entity understands that the USPTO's computer programs have certain data entry requirements, and hence applicant entity is designating the present application as a continuation in part of its parent applications, but expressly points out that such designations are not to be construed in any way as any type of commentary and/or admission as to whether or not the present application contains any new matter in addition to the matter of its parent application(s).
The present application relates, in general, to detection and/or treatment.
In one aspect, a method includes but is not limited to: providing one or more computable attributes of one or more agents associated with at least a part of an immune response in a host; and forming a set of the one or more computable attributes operable for modulating the at least a part of the immune response in the host. In addition to the foregoing, other method aspects are described in the claims, drawings, and text forming a part of the present application.
In one aspect, a system includes but is not limited to: circuitry for providing one or more computable attributes of one or more agents associated with at least a part of an immune response in a host; and circuitry for forming a set of the one or more computable attributes operable for modulating the at least a part of the immune response in the host. In addition to the foregoing, other system aspects are described in the claims, drawings, and text forming a part of the present application.
In one or more various aspects, related systems include but are not limited to circuitry and/or programming for effecting the herein-referenced method aspects; the circuitry and/or programming can be virtually any combination of hardware, software, and/or firmware configured to effect the herein-referenced method aspects depending upon, the design choices of the system designer.
In one aspect, a system includes but is not limited to: a computer readable medium including, but not limited to, at least one computer program for use with a computer system and wherein the at least one computer program includes a plurality of instructions including: one or more instructions for providing one or more computable attributes of one or more agents associated with at least a part of an immune response in a host; and one or more instructions for forming a set of the one or more computable attributes operable for modulating the at least a part of the immune response in the host. In addition to the foregoing, other system aspects are described in the claims, drawings, and text forming a part of the present application.
In one aspect, a method includes but is not limited to: providing one or more computable epitopes of one or more agents associated with at least a part of an immune response in a host; and forming a set of the one or more computable epitopes operable for modulating the at least a part of the immune response of the host. In addition to the foregoing, other method aspects are described in the claims, drawings, and text forming a part of the present application.
In one or more various aspects, related systems include but are not limited to circuitry and/or programming for effecting the herein-referenced method aspects; the circuitry and/or programming can be virtually any combination of hardware, software, and/or firmware configured to effect the herein-referenced method aspects, depending upon the design choices of the system designer.
In one aspect, a program product includes but is not limited to: at least one signal-bearing medium including one or more instructions for providing one or more computable epitopes of one or more agents associated with at least a part of an immune response in a host; and one or more instructions for forming a set of the one or more computable epitopes operable for modulating the at least a part of the immune response of the host. In addition to the foregoing, other program product aspects are described in the claims, drawings, and text forming a part of the present application.
In one aspect, a method includes but is not limited to: providing one or more epitopes of one or more agents associated with at least a part of an immune response in a host; and forming a set of the one or more epitopes operable for modulating the at least a part of the immune response of the host. In addition to the foregoing; other method aspects are described in the claims, drawings, and text forming a part of the present application.
In one or more various aspects, related systems include but are not limited to circuitry and/or programming for effecting the herein-referenced method aspects; the circuitry and/or programming can be virtually any combination of hardware, software, and/or firmware configured to effect the herein-referenced method aspects, depending upon the design choices of the system designer.
In one aspect, a program, product includes but is not limited to: at least one signal-bearing medium including one or more instructions for providing one or more epitopes of one or more agents associated with at least a part of an immune response in a host; and one or more instructions for forming a set of the one or more epitopes operable for modulating the at least a part of the immune response of the host. In addition to the foregoing, other program product aspects are described in the claims, drawings, and text forming a part of the present application.
In one aspect, a method includes but is not limited to: providing one or more computable antigens of one or more agents associated with at least a part of an immune response in a host; and forming a set of the one or more computable antigens operable for modulating the at least a part of the immune response of the host. In addition to the foregoing, other method aspects are described in the claims, drawings, and text forming a part of the present application.
In one or more various aspects, related systems include but are not limited to circuitry and/or programming for effecting the herein-referenced method aspects; the circuitry and/or programming can be virtually any combination of hardware, software, and/or firmware configured to effect the herein-referenced method aspects, depending upon the design choices of the system designer.
In one aspect, a program product includes but is not limited to: at least one signal-bearing medium including one or more instructions for providing one or more computable antigens of one or more agents associated with at least a part of an immune response in a host; and one or more instructions for forming a set of the one or more computable antigens operable for modulating the at least a part of the immune response of the host. In addition to the foregoing, other program product aspects are described in the claims, drawings, and text forming a part of the present application.
In addition to the foregoing, various other method and or system aspects are set forth and described in the text (e.g., claims and/or detailed description) and/or drawings of the present application.
The foregoing is a summary and thus contains, bad necessity; simplifications, generalizations and omissions of detail; consequently, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the summary is illustrative only and is NOT intended to be in any way limiting. Other aspects, inventive features, and advantages of the devices and/or processes described herein, as defined solely by the claims, will become apparent in the non-limiting detailed description set forth herein.
The use of the same symbols in different drawings typically indicates similar or identical items.
The present application uses formal outline headings for clarity of presentation. However, it is to be understood that the outline headings are for presentation purposes, and that different types of subject matter may be discussed throughout the application (e.g., device(s)/structure(s) may be described under the process(es)/operations heading(s) and/or process(es)/operations mail be discussed under structure(s)/process(es) headings). Hence, the use of the formal outline headings is not intended to be in any way limiting.
With reference to the figures and with reference now to
A. Structure(s) and or System(s)
Continuing to
With reference to the figures, and with reference now to
With reference to the figures, and with reference now to
Continuing to refer to
In various aspects, the computer system 100, the computer program 102 and/or the circuitry include predictive algorithms for determining the pattern changes in the computable epitope and the sequence of the computable epitope. In other various aspects, the computer system 100, the computer program 102 and/or the circuitry include predictive algorithms for determining the course of a disease influenced by the pattern changes in the computable epitope of the agent.
In various aspects, the computer system 100, the computer program 102 and/or the circuitry includes computer-based modeling software for designing and selecting the immune response component for reducing the ability of the agent to establish itself in the host and/or to cause a disease, disorder and/or a condition that requires management.
In other various aspects, the computer system 100, the computer program 102 and/or the circuitry includes software for integrating with other computer-based systems and incorporating information relevant to selecting an immune response component for modulating the computable epitopes.
With reference to the figures, and with reference now to
The term “immune response component,” as used herein, may include, but is not limited to, at least a part of a macrophage, a neutrophil, a cytotoxic cell, a lymphocyte, a T-lymphocyte, a killer T-lymphocyte, an immune response modulator, a helper T-lymphocyte, an antigen receptor, an antigen-presenting cell, a dendritic cell, a cytotoxic T-lymphocyte, a T-8 lymphocyte, a cluster differentiation (CD) molecule, a CD3 molecule, a CD1 molecule, a B-lymphocyte, an antibody, a recombinant antibody, a genetically-engineered antibody, a chimeric antibody, a monospecific antibody, a bispecific antibody, a multispecific antibody, a diabody, a chimeric antibody, a humanized antibody, a human antibody, a heteroantibody, a monoclonal antibody, a polyclonal antibody, a camelized antibody, a deimmunized antibody, an anti-idiotypic antibody, an antibody fragment, and/or a synthetic antibody and/or any component of the immune system that may, bind to an antigen and/or an epitope thereof in a specific and/or a useful manner.
The term “agent”, as used herein, 400 may include, for example, but is not limited to, an organism, a virus, a dependent virus, an associated virus, a bacterium, a yeast, a mold, a fungus, a protoctist, an archaea, a mycoplasma, a phage, a mycobacterium, an ureaplasma, a chlamydia, a rickettsia, a nanobacterium, a prion, an agent responsible for a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE), a multicellular parasite, a protein, an infectious protein, a polypeptide, a polyribonucleotide, a polydeoxyribonucleotide, a polyglycopeptide, a nucleic acid, an infectious nucleic acid, a polymeric nucleic acid, a metabolic byproduct, a cellular byproduct, and/or a toxin. The term “agent” 400 ma) include, but is not limited to, a putative causative agent of a disease or disorder, or a cell or component thereof that is deemed, for example, a target for therapy, a target for neutralization, and/or or a cell whose removal, lysis or functional degradation may prove beneficial to the host. The term “agent” 400 may also include, but is not limited to a byproduct or output of a cell that may be neutralized and/or whose removal or functional neutralization may prove beneficial to the host. Furthermore, the term “agent” 400 may include an agent belonging to the same family or group as the agent of primary interest, or an agent exhibiting a common and/or a biological function relative to the agent of primary interest.
The term “antibody” 404, as used herein, is used in the broadest possible sense and may include but is not limited to an antibody, a recombinant antibody, a genetically engineered antibody, a chimeric antibody, a monospecific antibody, a bispecific antibody, a multispecific antibody, a diabody, a chimeric antibody, a humanized antibody, a human antibody, a heteroantibody, a monoclonal antibody, a polyclonal antibody, a camelized antibody, a deimmunized antibody, an anti-idiotypic antibody, and/or an antibody fragment. The term “antibody” 404 may also include but is not limited to types of antibodies such as IgA, IgD, IgE, IgC and/or IgM, and/or the subtypes IgG1, IgG2, IgG3, IgG4, IgA1 and/or IgA2. The term “antibody” may also include but is not limited to an antibody fragment such as at least a portion of an intact antibody 104, for instance, the antigen-binding variable region. Examples of antibody fragments include Fv, Fab, Fab′, F(ab′), F(ab′).sub.2, Fv, fragment, diabody, linear antibody, single-chain antibody molecule, multispecific antibody, and/or other antigen-binding sequences of an antibody. Additional information may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,641,870, U.S. Pat. No. 4,816,567, WO 93/11161, Holliger et al., Diabodies: small bivalent and bispecific antibody fragments, PNAS, 90: 6444-6448 (1993), Zapata et al., Engineering linear F(ab′)2 fragments for efficient production in Escherichia coli and enhanced antiproliferative activity, Protein Eng. 8(10): 1057-1062 (1995), which are incorporated herein by reference. Antibodies may be generated for therapeutic purposes by a variety of known techniques, such as, for example, phage display, and/or transgenic animals.
The term “antibody” 404, as used herein, may include anti-idiotypic antibodies. Anti-idiotypic antibodies may elicit a stronger immune response compared to the antigen and may be used for enhancing the immune response. Anti-idiotypic antibodies may be rapidly selected, for example, by phage display technology. Additional information may be found in U.S. Patent Application No. 20040143101, to Soltis which is incorporated herein by reference.
The term “antibody” 404, as used herein, also may include, but is not limited to, functional derivatives of a monoclonal antibody, which include antibody molecules or fragments thereof that have retained a dominant fraction of the antigenic specificity and the functional activity of the parent molecule.
The term “heteroantibody,” as used herein, may include but is not limited to, two or more antibodies, antibody fragments, antibody derivatives, and/or antibodies with at least one specificity that are linked together. Additional information may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 6,071,517, which is incorporated herein by reference.
The term “chimeric antibody,” as used herein, may include but is not limited to antibodies having mouse-variable regions joined to human-constant regions. In one aspect, “chimeric antibody” includes antibodies with human framework regions combined with complementarity-determining regions (CDRs) obtained from a mouse and/or rat; those skilled in the art will appreciate that CDRs may be obtained from other sources. Additional information may be found in EPO Publication No 0239400, which is incorporated herein by reference.
The term “humanized antibody,” as used herein, may include, but is not limited to, an antibody having one or more human-derived regions, and/or a chimeric antibody with one or more human-derived regions, also considered the recipient antibody, combined with CDRs from a donor mouse and/or rat immunoglobulin. In one aspect, a humanized antibody may include residues not found in either donor and/or recipient sequences. A humanized antibody may have single and/or multiple specificities. Additional information may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,530,101, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,816,567, which are incorporated herein by reference. Information may also be found in, Jones et al., Replacing the complementarity-determining regions in a human antibody with those from a mouse, Nature, 321:522-525(1986); Riechmann et al., Reshaping human antibodies for therapy, Nature, 332:323-327 (1988); and Verhoeyen et al., Reshaping human antibodies: grafting an antilysozyme activity, Science, 239:1534 (1988), which are all incorporated herein by reference.
The term “human antibody,” as used herein, may include but is not limited to an antibody with variable and constant regions derived from human germline immunoglobulin sequences. The term “human antibody” may include and is not limited to amino acid residues of non-human origin, encoded by non-human germline, such as, for example, residues introduced by site-directed mutations, random mutations, and/or insertions. Methods for producing human antibodies are known in the art and incorporated herein by reference. Additional information may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,634,666, which is incorporated herein by reference.
The term “recombinant antibody,” as used herein, may include antibodies formed and/or created by recombinant technology, including, but not limited to, chimeric, human, humanized, hetero antibodies and/or the like.
The term “epitope” 402, as used herein, may include, but is not limited to, a sequence of at least 3 amino acids, a sequence of at least nine nucleotides, an amino acid, a nucleotide, a carbohydrate, a protein, a lipid, a capsid protein, a coat protein, a polysaccharide, a sugar, a lipopolysaccharide, a glycolipid, a glycoprotein, and/or at least a part of a cell or of a biological entity, such as a virus particle. As used herein, the term “epitope” 402 may, if appropriate to context, be used interchangeably with antigen, paratope binding site, antigenic determinant, and/or determinant. As used herein, the term “determinant” can include an influencing element, determining element, and/or factor, unless context indicates otherwise. In one aspect, the term “epitope” 402 includes, but is not limited to, a peptide-binding site. As used herein, the term “epitope” 402 may include structural and/or functionally similar sequences found in the agent 400. The term “epitope” 402 includes, but is not limited to, similar sequences observed in orthologs, paralogs, homologs, isofunctional homologs, heterofunctional homologs, heterospecific homologs, and/or pseudogenes of the agent 400. The epitope 402 may include any portion of the agent. In one aspect, the epitope 402 malt include at least a portion of a gene or gene-expression product. In another aspect, the epitope may include at least a part of a non-coding region.
The term “computable epitope” as used herein, includes, but is not limited to, an epitope 402 whose likely future mutable forms (e.g., mutation-engendered) may be predicted by using, for example, including, but not limited to, practicable computer-based predictive methodology and/or practicable evolutionary methods and/or practicable probabilistic evolutionary, models and/or practicable probabilistic defect models and/or practicable probabilistic mutation models. For example, Smith et al. in their article “Mapping the Antigenic and Genetic Evolution of Influenza Virus” on the history of the antigenic evolution of the human influenza virus, Science 305, 371 (2004), which is incorporated herein bad reference in its entirety, present in this paper's Table 1 and the supporting text thereof a set of patterns of viral coat-protein epitopic evolution which constitutes a basis for predicting one or more patterns of epitopic evolution in this particular agent, which is a well-established threat to human physiological well-being. In one aspect, the computable epitope may be suggested by, for example, including, but not limited to, predictive parallel extrapolations with similar structure, key residues, and/or the presence or absence of known domains. In another aspect, mathematics, statistical analysis and/or biological structural modeling tools may provide the relevant information for designating or identifying the computable epitope. One specific example of a computable epitope is a polypeptide associated with the HIV-1 virus, which may, be, for example, seven to ten amino acids long. Knowing any starting state of such a polypeptide (e.g., how the various amino acids are sequenced/arranged), and using current computational techniques, it is practicable to calculate the likely future combinations of the seven to ten amino acids in the polypeptide so as to be able to predict how the epitope will likely appear as evolution/change occurs in the epitope as biological processes progress. Indeed, many such evolutionary, progressions in the protein sequences of the viral proteins (e.g., reverse transcriptase and protease) of the several major strains of HIV-1 virus have been reported in the literature, and are used for monitoring the clinical progression of disease in patients. Consequently, in some implementations, technologies described herein computationally predict how the epitope(s) will appear in future mutable (e.g., mutation-engendered) forms. This predictive knowledge allows for the designation of at least one immune response component operable for modulating (e.g., reducing and/or eliminating) at least one “future version” of some posited presently existing epitope. As a specific example, one might predict the five or six mostly likely ways in which at least one epitope of a viral protein of a current strain of HIV-1 might appear several months in the future, and then designate that a person's immune cells be exposed to the chemical structures of the epitopes of such an essential protein of such future HIV-1 strains in order to produce an immune response ready, waiting, and keyed to such future epitopic variants of the at least one HIV-R strain. Once such antibodies or other immune response components have been produced, amplification or adjuvant techniques may be utilized to produce usefully-large quantities of such antibodies or other immune responses at a time earlier than the elapsing of several months, and such antibodies administered to a host, or a vaccine eliciting such antibodies administered to a host, or corresponding cytotoxic responses prepared in the host, and/or a combination thereof. Then, to the extent that the HIV-1 viral quasispecies constituting the infection of the host does evolve or mutate in any one of the five or six computationally-predicted ways, antibodies or other specific immune responses will be present and waiting to “lock onto” and negate the HIV-1 virus as it mutates along any of the predicted paths, thereby effectively precluding its ‘mutational escape’ from the initial therapy. Examples listed supra are merely illustrative of methodology that may be used for designating the computable epitope and are NOT intended to be in any way limiting.
Continuing to refer to
Continuing to refer to
In one aspect, the epitope 402 is capable of evoking an immune response. The strength and/or type of the immune response may vary, for example, the epitope 402 may invoke a weak response and/or a medium response as measured by the strength of the immune response. It is contemplated that in one instance the epitope 402 selected for targeting may be one that invokes a weak response in the host; however, it may be selective to the agent 400. In another example, the epitope 402 selected may invoke a weak response in the host; however, it may be selected for targeting as it is common to a number of agents deemed as targets. The herein described implementations are merely exemplary and should be considered illustrative of like and/or more general implementations within the ambit of those having skill in the art in light of the teachings herein.
With reference to the figures, and with reference now to
In one aspect, the one or more agents may be subtypes of the agent 400. In this aspect, a set of epitopes may be selected for targeting an agent. In another aspect, the one or more agents may be opportunistic agents capable of aiding or exaggerating an infection formed by the agent 400. In yet another aspect, the one or more agents may be agents known to establish a “beachhead” in the host organism prior to or subsequent to an infection or in response to the host's attenuated immune response.
With reference now, to
Continuing to refer to
In one aspect, the epitope 402 selected has a probable sequence match with another agent of interest, for example, an opportunistic agent, or a subsequent, prior or concurrent infection of the host caused by another agent. In another aspect, the epitope 402 selected has a low probable match with the host, for example, to decrease possible side-effects due to the production of self- or auto-antibodies. The term “host,” as used herein, may include but is not limited to an individual, a person, a patient, and/or virtually any organism requiring management of a disease, disorder, and/or condition. For example, the epitope 402 selected may have a 0-70% sequence match at the amino acid level with the host or the agent 400, or a 0-100% sequence match with the agent. Those having skill in the art will recognize that part of that context in relation to the term “host” is that generally what is desired is a practicably close sequence match to the agent (e.g., HIV-1 or influenza-A virus), so that the one or more immune system components in use can attack it and a practicably distant sequence match to the host (e.g., a patient), in order to decrease or render less aggressive or less likely any attack by the immune system components in use on the host. However, it is also to be understood that in some contexts the agent will in fact constitute a part of the host (e.g., when the agent to be suppressed is actually a malfunctioning part of the host, such as in an auto-immune or neoplastic disease), in which case that part of the host to be suppressed will be treated as the “agent,” and that part of the host to be left relatively undisturbed will be treated as the “host.” In another aspect, the epitope 402 selected has a sequence match with the agent, for example, a high percent sequence match, or a relatively higher percent sequence match with other agents compared to the host, or a 0-100% sequence match with the agent 400. The term “sequence match,” as used herein, may include sequence matching at the nucleic acid level, at the polysaccharide level, at the protein or glycoprotein level, and/or the polypeptide level. In an embodiment, the epitope 402 selected has a low percent sequence match with host epitopes. In another embodiment, the epitope 402 selected has a high percent sequence match with other agents.
In molecular biology, the terms “percent sequence identity,” “percent sequence homology” or “percent sequence similarity” or “percent sequence match” are sometimes used interchangeably. In this application, these terms are also often used interchangeably, unless context dictates otherwise.
In another aspect, the epitope 402 selected has a likely and/or a high percent sequence match with other epitopes, for example, including, but not limited to, the epitope 402 having a structural sequence match, a functional sequence match, a similar functional effect, a similar result in an assay and/or a combination. Structural comparison algorithms and/or 3-dimensional protein structure data may be used to determine whether two proteins or presented fragments thereof may have a usefully-high percent structural sequence match. In another example, the epitope 402 may have a functional match and/or share a similar functional effect with epitopes of interest. In this example, the epitope 402 may have a lower percent sequence match but may still exert the same functional effect. In another example, the epitope 402 and/or other epitopes of interest may have a lower percent sequence match but may share similar activities, for example, enzymatic activity and/or receptor-binding activity, e.g., as determined by use of an assay.
In another aspect, the epitope 402 selected may be an immunologically effective determinant; for example, the epitope 402 may be weakly antigenic, but it may evoke an effective immune response deriving from, for example, the nature and/or the type of the immune response component that it induces. In another aspect, the epitope 402 may exert a similar effect on the immune response. For example, the epitope 402 selected may be part of the antigenic structure of an agent unrelated to the disease or disorder in question; however, it may exert a substantially similar effect on the immune system as assessed by, for example, the type, the nature, and/or the time-interval of the immune response induced thereby.
In one aspect, a sequence match with an entity may be determined by, for example, calculating the percent identity and/or percent similarity between epitopes and/or between the epitope 400 and/or epitopic sequences of the host. In one aspect, the percent identity between two sequences may be calculated by determining a number of substantially similar positions obtained after aligning the sequences and introducing gaps. For example, in one implementation the percent identity between two sequences is treated as equal to (=) {a number of substantially similar positions÷the total number of positions}×100. In this example, the number and length of gaps introduced to obtain optimal net alignment of the sequences is to be considered. In another aspect, the percent identity between two sequences at the nucleic acid level may be determined by using a publicly-available software tool such as BLAST, BLAST-2, ALIGN and/or DNASTAR software. Similarly, the percent identity between two sequences at the amino acid level may be calculated by using publicly-available software tools such as, for example, Peptidecutter, AACompSim, Find Mod, GlycoMod, InterProtScan, DALI and/or tools listed on the ExPasy Server (Expert Protein Analysis System) Proteomics Server at http://www.expasy.org/. In one embodiment, the percent identity at the nucleic acid level and/or at the amino acid level are determined.
In one aspect, string-matching algorithms may be used to identify homologous segments, for example, using FASTA and BLAST. In another aspect, sequence alignment based on fast Fourier transform (FFT) algorithms may be used to rapidly identify homologous segments. In yet another aspect, iterative searches may be used to identify and select homologous segments. Searches may be used not only to identify and select shared epitopes but also to identify epitopes that have the least homology with human sequences. Additional information may be found in Katoh et al., MAFFT: a novel method for rapid multiple sequence alignment based on fast Fourier transform, Nucleic Acids Research, 30(14):3059-66 (2002) which is incorporated herein by reference.
A number of large-scale screening techniques may be used to identify and select the designed antibody, for example, the antibody designed may be selected by using optical fiber array devices capable of screening binding molecules. Additional information may be found in U.S. Patent Application No. 20040132112 to Kimon et al., which is hereby incorporated by reference.
It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the epitope 402 selected need not be limited to a matching sequence displayed by the agent 400. In one aspect, a meta-signature and/or a consensus sequence may be derived based on an), number of criteria. In one aspect, the meta-signature may be derived by analysis of data from sources such as, for example, antigenic evolution, genetic evolution, antigenic shift, antigenic drift, data from crystal structure, probable match with a host, probable match with other strains, and/or strength of the immunogenic response desired. The meta-signature may include new sequences and/or may exclude some sequences. For example, it may include silent mutations, mismatches, a spacer to bypass a hot spot or a highly mutable site, predicted changes in the sequence, and/or may include epitopes from multiple agents, thus providing immune-based protection from multiple agents. As another example, the meta-signature may exclude sequences, such as, for example, including, but not limited to, mutable sequences and/or sequences with a high percent sequence match to the host's epitopes.
In one aspect, the predicted changes in the epitope 402 may be determined by analysis of past variations observed and/or predicted in the agent 400 (e.g.,
In one aspect, one or more sets and/or subsets of epitopes may be formed. The nature and type of criteria used to form the sets and/or subsets will depend, for example, on the nature and type of the agent 400, the duration of the immune response desired (e.g., short-term immunity, or long-term immunity), the nature of the immune response desired (e.g., weak, moderate, or strong), the population to be protected (e.g., presence and/or currency of varying degrees of prior agent exposure) and the like. The sets and/or subsets so formed may accept input either robotically or from a user (e.g., from a manufacturer of immune response components, from wet lab and/or medical personnel).
The pattern changes predicted in the epitope 402 may be supplemented, for example, by other methodology, statistical analysis, historical data, and/or other extrapolations of the type utilized by those having skill in the art. The knowledge of these predicted pattern changes represents an arsenal in the design and/or selection of the immune response components. The predicted pattern changes may be used to determine the progression of the changes in the immune response component required to manage such changes. Inferring the pattern changes in the epitope 402 and using the information to modulate the progressing response may help manage the response more effectively. For example, the pattern changes may be used to provide a timeline of when the therapy could be changed, what therapy should constitute the change, or the duration of the change. As a more specific example, one reason why Type-1 Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV-1) is able to eventually kill its host is that the virus mutates its antigenic signature-profile significantly faster than the human immune system can effectively track and respond to these mutations. In a specific implementation of the subject matter described herein, a sample of HIV-1 is taken from a patient at a point in time and computational biological techniques are used to infer likely mutations of the antigenic signature-profile of the virus at future times. Techniques such as cloning are then utilized to synthesize immune system-activating aspects of the anticipated-future HIV strains, and thereafter replicative techniques are utilized to rapidly generate copious amounts of one or more immune system components (e.g., antibodies) that are keyed to the likely future generation of the patient's particular strain and sub-strain(s) of HIV-1. Once prepared, the immune system components are then administered to the patient and thus are “present and waiting” for the HIV-1 viral quasispecies when it mutates into the anticipated new forms and/or attempts to replicatively proliferate these forms. If the HIV-1 viral quasispecies mutates as anticipated, the “pre-loaded” immune response components successfully negate the mutated quasispecies components, thereby likely greatly reducing the patient's viral load—and crucially suppressing the likelihood of further mutational evolution, since the virion population of mutated forms never becomes substantial. In another implementation, the mutational history of the HIV-1 quasispecies is closely tracked, and once the actual mutational direction has been determined, high-speed (likely, ex vivo) techniques are utilized to generate immune system components capable of effective suppression of the mutated viral quasispecies, significantly more rapidly than the virus is able to effectively mutate and thus ‘escape’ from the suppressive therapy.
In one aspect, the epitope 402 selected for designating the immune response component may be synthetically made and/or derived from the agent 400. In one embodiment, the epitope 402 selected is derived from an agent 400 extracted from an individual desiring treatment and/or an individual found to be resistant to that agent. In one aspect, the epitope 402 selected for designating the immune response component may include multiple copies of the exact same epitope and/or multiple copies of different epitopes.
In one aspect, the meta-signature includes sequences matching adjacent and/or contiguous sequences. In another aspect, the meta-signature includes non-adjacent sequences. For example, it will be appreciated by those of skill in the art that peptide splicing and/or proteosomal processing of the epitope 402 that occurs naturally may result in the formation of a new epitope, for example, a non-linear epitope. In this example, proteosomal processing may result in the excision of sequences and the transposing or juxtaposing of non-contiguous sequences to form the non-linear epitope. Additional information may be found in Hanada et al., Immune recognition of a human renal cancer antigen through post-translational protein splicing, Nature 427:252 (2004), and Vigneron et al., An antigenic peptide produced by peptide splicing in the proteosome, Science 304:597 (2004), hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.
Additionally, it will also be appreciated by those of skill in the art that the meta-signature may include sequences displayed on two different parts of the agent 400. For example, non-adjacent sequences may appear adjacent each other when the protein is folded. In this aspect, the meta-signature may include the non-adjacent sequences for identifying the meta-signature. Furthermore, the meta-signature may include non-adjacent sequences corresponding to a specific conformational state of a protein. Immune response components designed to bind such sequences may be specific to the conformational state of the protein. 3-D and/or crystal structure information may also be used to designate the meta-signature.
In one aspect, the meta-signature may include multiple sets of epitopes targeting a predicted pattern change and/or an observed pattern change. For example, multiple sets of epitopes may be designed for vaccination and/or for production of immune response components.
Techniques for epitope mapping are known in the art and herein incorporated by reference. For example, FACS analysis and ELISA may be used to investigate the binding of antibodies to synthetic peptides including at least a portion of the epitope. Epitope-mapping analysis techniques, Scatchard analysis and the like ma); be used to predict the ability of the antibody 404 to bind to the epitope 402 presented on the agent 100, to determine the binding affinity of the antibody or other immune element 404 to the epitope 402, and/or to discern a desirable configuration for the antibody or other immune element 404.
Continuing to refer to
The sequences of selected epitopes 506, 512, and 518 may be amplified using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,683,195, 4,683,202, and 4,800,159 to Mullis et al. which are incorporated herein in their entirety (e.g., such as when epitopes have a nucleic acid character). In another aspect, a consensus sequence and/or a meta-signature may be designed and amplified. The relevant sequence(s) may be inserted in an expression vector for producing proteins and the expressed protein(s) subsequently used to produce antibodies specific to the selected epitopes. In one aspect, the selected epitopes may be antigenic but may not be directly immunogenic.
Human antibodies may be made, for example, by using a human-mouse system such as, for example, the Xenomouse technology of Abgenix, Inc., (available from Abgenix, Inc. currently having corporate headquarters in Fremont, Calif. 94555) and/or the HuMAb Mouse technology of Medarex, Inc., (available from Medarex Inc. currently having corporate headquarters in Annadale, N.J.). In these systems, the host mouse immunoglobulin genes are inactivated and human immunoglobulin genes are inserted in the host. On stimulation with an antigen, such transgenic mice produce fully human antibodies. Subsequently, human monoclonal antibodies can be isolated according to standard hybridoma technology.
Selection of humanized antibodies with higher binding affinities from promising murine antibodies may be performed by using computer modeling software developed by Queen et al. The antibodies produced by this method include approximately 90% of the pertinent human sequences. The structure of the specific antibody is predicted based on computer modeling and the retaining of key amino acids predicted to be necessary to retain the shape and, therefore, the binding specificity of the complementarity determining regions (CDRs). Thus, key murine amino acids are substituted into the human antibody framework along with murine CDRs. The software may then be used to test the binding affinity of the re-designed antibody with the antigen. Additional information can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,693,762 to Queen, et al., which is incorporated herein by reference.
The formation of other antibody fragments, such as, for example, Fv, Fab, F(ab′).sub.2 or Fc may be carried out by, for example, phage antibody generated using the techniques as described in McCafferty et al., Phage antibodies: filamentous phage displaying antibody variable domains, Nature 348:552-554 (1990), and Clackson et al., Making Antibody Fragments Using Phage Display Libraries, Nature 352:624-628 (1991) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,565,332 to Hoogenboom et al., which are incorporated herein by reference. Surface plasmon resonance techniques, for instance, may be used to analyze real-time biospecific interactions. Camelized antibodies, deimmunized antibodies and anti-idiotypic antibodies may be selected by techniques known in the art, which are herein incorporated by reference.
In one aspect, the selection of antibodies for modulating the immune response may be based on their function. For example, activating antibodies, blocking antibodies, neutralizing antibodies, and/or inhibitory antibodies may be used to modulate the immune response. Such antibodies may perform one or more functions under the appropriate conditions. In a more specific example, the antibody 404 may be triggered to undergo a conformational change by providing a cofactor and/or by changing the ambient temperature or other ambient conditions, such as overall osmolality or pH or concentration of a particular compound, atom or ion. The conformation change may result in a new function being performed by the antibody 404.
Techniques for purifying antibodies are known in the art and are incorporated herein by reference. The purified complementary antibodies 530, 528, or 532 may then be made available for therapeutic and/or prophylactic treatment.
The term “an effective treatment therapy,” as used herein, includes, but is not limited to the use of immune response components in combination with other antibodies, antibody fragments, and/or in combination with other treatments, including, but not limited to, drugs, vitamins, hormones, medicinal agents, pharmaceutical compositions and/or other therapeutic and/or prophylactic combinations. In another aspect, the immune response component may be used in combination, for example, with a modulator of an immune response and/or a modulator of an antibody. In one aspect, cocktails of immune response components may be administered, for example, by injecting or otherwise effectively inserting by a subcutaneous, nasal, intranasal, intramuscular, intravenous, intraarterial, intrathecal, intracapsular, intraorbital, intracardiac, transdermal, subdermal, intradermal, intraperitoneal, transtracheal, subcuticular, intraarticular, subcapsular, subarachnoidal, intraspinal, epidural, intrasternal, infusion, topical, sublingual, and/or enteric route.
The therapeutic effect of the immune response component may be produced by one or more modes of action. For example, in one aspect, the immune response component may produce a therapeutic effect and/or alleviate the symptoms by targeting specific cells and neutralizing them. In another aspect, the immune response component may bind to and/or block receptors present on the agent 400 and/or may directly and/or indirectly block the binding of molecules, such as, for example, cytokines, and/or growth factors or modulators or pro- or anti-apoptotic signaling materials, to the agent 400. In another aspect, the therapeutic effect of the immune response component(s) is produced by functioning as signaling molecule(s). In this example, the immune response component may induce cross-linking of receptors with subsequent induction of programmed cell death (e.g., apoptosis).
The immune response component may be engineered to include, for example, one or more effector molecules, such as, for example, drugs, small molecules, enzymes, toxins, radionuclides, cytokines, and/or DNA molecules. In this example, the immune response component may serve as a vehicle for targeting and binding the agent 400 and/or delivering the one or more effector molecules. In one aspect, the immune response component may be engineered to include the one or more effector molecules without the natural effector functions of the immune response component.
In another aspect, one or more immune response components may be coupled to molecules for promoting immune system components to act to eliminate unwanted cells or other biological entities, such as virus particles. This technique has been described for the treatment of tumors, viral-infected cells, fungi, and bacteria using antibodies. Additional information may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,676,980 to Segal, which is incorporated herein by reference.
With reference to the figures, and with reference now to
In another aspect, the antibodies or other immune response components with higher binding affinities may be selected. Numerous techniques exist for enhancing the binding affinity of the antibody or other immune component for the epitope 402. In one aspect, the binding affinity of the antibody or other immune response component for the epitope 402 may be enhanced by constructing phage display libraries from an individual who has been immunized with the epitope 402 either by happenstance or by immunization. The generation and selection of higher affinity antibodies or other immune response components may also be improved, for example, by mimicking somatic hypermutagenesis, complementarity-determining region (CDR) walking mutagenesis, antibody chain-shuffling, and/or technologies such as Xenomax technology (available from Abgenix, Inc. currently having corporate headquarters in Fremont, Calif. 94555). In one example, antibodies including introduced mutations may be displayed on the surface of filamentous bacteriophage. Processes mimicking the primary and/or secondary immune response may then be used to select the desired antibodies, for example, antibodies displaying a higher binding affinity for the antigen, and/or by evaluating the kinetics of dissociation. For additional information see, Low, et al., Mimicking Somatic Hypermutation: Affinity Maturation Of Antibodies Displayed On Bacteriophage Using A Bacterial Mutator Strain. J. Mol. Biol. 260:359-368 (1996); Hawkins et al. Selection Of Phage Antibodies By Binding Affinity. Mimicking Affinity Maturation, J. Mol. Biol. 226:889-896 (1992), which are incorporated herein by reference.
In another example, the generation and/or selection of higher affinity antibodies may be carried out by CDR walking mutagenesis, which mimics the tertiary immune selection process. For example, saturation mutagenesis of the CDRs of the antibody 404 may be used to generate one or more libraries of antibody fragments which are displayed on the surface of filamentous bacteriophage followed bad the subsequent selection of the relevant antibody using immobilized antigen. Sequential and parallel optimization strategies may be used to then select the higher affinity antibody. For additional information see Yang et al., CDR Walking Mutagenesis For The Affinity Maturation Of A Potent Human Anti-HIV-1 Antibody Into The Picomolar Range, J. Mol. Biol 254(3):392-403 (1995), which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
In yet another example, site-directed mutagenesis may be used to generate and select higher affinity antibodies, for example, by parsimonious mutagenesis. In this example, a computer-based method is used to identify and screen amino acid residues included in the one or more CDRs of a variable region of an antibody 104 involved in an antigen-antibody binding. Additionally, in some implementations, the number of codons introduced is such that about 50% of the codons in the degenerate position are wild-type. In another example, antibody chain-shuffling may be used to generate and select higher affinity antibodies. These techniques are known in the art and are herein incorporated by reference.
The dosage of the immune response component may vary and in one aspect may depend, for example, on the duration of the treatment, body mass, history, severity of the disease, health-history, genotype, sex, and/or age. Compositions including immune response components may be delivered to an individual for prophylactic and/or therapeutic treatments. In one aspect, an individual having a disease and/or condition is administered a treatment dose to alleviate and/or at least partially cure the condition manifested by the symptoms. In this example, a therapeutically-effective dose is administered to the patient.
In another aspect, a person's resistance to disease conditions may be enhanced by providing a prophylactically calibrated dose of the antibody 404. A prophylactic dose may be provided to, for example, including, but not limited to, a person genetically predisposed to a disease and/or condition, a person (about to be) present in a region where a disease is prevalent, and/or a person wishing to enhance that person's immune response.
Optimization of the physico-chemical properties of the immune response component may be improved, for example, by computer-based screening methods. Properties affecting antibody therapeutics may also be improved, such as, for example, stability, antigen-binding affinity, and/or solubility. Additional information may be found in U.S. Patent Application No. 20040110226 to Lazar, which is incorporated herein by reference.
With reference to the figures and with reference now to
Minor changes in the epitope 402 which do not always lead to the formation of a new subtype may be caused, for example, by point mutations in the selected epitope 506. In one aspect, the occurrence of point mutations may be localized, for example, to hot spots of the selected epitope 506. The frequency and/or occurrence of such hot spots may be predicted by the computer-based method. Additionally, the method provides for access to databases including, for example, historical compilations of the antigenic variations of the agent 400 and/or of the selected epitope 506, for example, from previous endemics and/or pandemics or the natural evolutionary history of the disease. Such information may be part of an epitope profile for charting the progression of the immune response. A non-exclusive example is provided by a point mutation in the glutamic acid at position 92 of the NS1 protein of the influenza-A virus that has been shown to dramatically down-regulate activation of human cytokines. Such information malt be useful in designating the meta-signature.
Continuing to refer to
Referring now to
Generally, when major epitopic changes do occur, a larger section of the exposed host population succumbs to the infection, sometimes leading to an epidemic or a pandemic. This problem may be alleviated in part, for example, by predicting the appearance of new (sub-)strains and/or subtypes of an agent as a result of the appearance of newt epitopes and/or the disappearance of existing epitopes. In one aspect, for example, including, but not limited to, the prediction of the new epitopes, attention may be directed towards a subset of genes, for example, those important for the overall Darwinian fitness and/or replication and/or infectivity, of the agent 400. For example, examining the appearance of new subtypes of influenza virus type A shows that the antigenic variations occur for the most part as a result of mutations in this virus's neuraminidase and/or hemagglutinin genes.
In another aspect, the selected epitope 506 may not involve highly variable regions and focus instead on areas having lower probability of mutations. Thus epitopes selected may avoid hot spots of antigenic variations and instead target other specific regions of the agent 400, such as, for example, the receptor-binding site on the surface of the agent 400. In another example, the selected epitope 506 may not be readily accessible to the immune response component, for example, the receptor-binding site may be buried deep in a ‘pocket’ of a large protein and may be surrounded by readily accessible sequences exhibiting higher level(s) of antigenic variations. In this example, one possibility may include providing small antibody fragments that penetrate the receptor-binding site preventing the agent 400 from binding its target. In another example, a drug and/or chemical may be used to modify and/or enhance the accessibility of the receptor-binding site. In yet another example, a chemical with a tag mats be used to bind to the receptor and the tag then used for binding the immune response component.
In another aspect, the immune response component may be designed so as to circumvent the shape changes in the epitope 402 and provide sufficiently effective binding to the epitope 402 even following mutational change therein. In this example, the antibody or other immune response component designed may include accommodations in its design deriving from the prediction of hot spots and/or the predicted mutational changes in the epitope 402.
In one aspect, the size of the immune response component may be manipulated. An immune response component, for example, the antibody 404 may be designed to include the practicably minimal binding site required to bind the epitope 402. In another example, the immune response component may be designed for binding to the smallest effective determinant.
In one aspect, an effective treatment therapy for a disease and/or disorder may include one or more immune response components designed to anticipate and/or treat an antigenic drift and/or an antigenic shift that is predicted for multiple agents. The agents need not be related to each other, for example, the therapy might be designed for a host suffering from multiple diseases.
B. Operation(s) and/or Process(es)
Following are a series of flowcharts depicting implementations of processes. For ease of understanding, the flowcharts are organized such that the initial flowcharts present implementations via an overall “big picture” or “top-level” viewpoint, as is done in
Several of the alternate process implementations are set forth herein by context. For example, as set forth herein in relation to
With reference now to
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With reference to the figures, and with reference now to
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With reference to the figures, and with reference now, to
C. Variation(s), and/or Implementation(s)
Those having skill in the art will recognize that the present application teaches modifications of the devices, structures, and/or processes within the spirit of the teaching herein. For example, in one aspect, the immune response components may be formulated to cross the blood-brain barrier, which is known to exclude mostly hydrophilic compounds, as well as to discriminate against transport of high molecular weight ones. For example, an antibody fragment may be encased in a lipid vesicle. In another example, the antibody or a portion of the antibody may be tagged onto a carrier protein or molecule. In another example, an antibody or other immune response component may be split into one or more complementary fragments, each fragment encased by a lipid vesicle, and each fragment functional only on binding its complementary fragment. Once the blood-brain barrier has been crossed, the lipid vesicle may be dissolved to release the antibody fragments which reunite with their complementary counterparts and may form a fully functional antibody or other immune response component. Other modifications of the subject matter herein will be appreciated by one of skill in the art in light of the teachings herein.
Those having skill in the art will recognize that the present application teaches modifications of the devices, structures, and/or processes within the spirit of the teaching herein. For example, in one aspect, the immune response components may be made in large format. The method lends itself to both small format or personalized care applications and large-scale applications and/or large format applications. Other modifications of the subject matter herein will be appreciated by one of skill in the art in light of the teachings herein.
Those having skill in the art will recognize that the present application teaches modifications of the devices, structures, and/or processes within the spirit of the teaching herein. For example, in one aspect, the method may be used to designate immune response components for any diseases or disorders. The application of this method is not limited to diseases where antigenic shift or drift keeps the immune system “guessing” or causing it to be effectively slow-to-respond or to be incapable of effective response. Although, influenza-A or HIV-1 are likely viral-disease-agent candidates for application of this method, treatment of other diseases, disorders and/or conditions will likely benefit from this methodology. Other modifications of the subject matter herein will be appreciated by one of skill in the art in light of the teachings herein.
Those having skill in the art will recognize that the present application teaches modifications of the devices, structures, and/or processes within the spirit of the teaching herein. For example, in one aspect, real-time evaluation may be provided of the antigenic changes by including a portable PCR-enabled machine which samples the environment for (sub-)strains of pathogens locally present. The information may be sent remotely to another location or to a portable material-administering device, for example, a drip-patch device with a remote sensor, utilized by the potentially-affected host, resulting in the activation of the necessary immune response components and thereby providing adequate protection to the potential host. As the evaluation possibly changes in time, the portable administering device may be triggered to change the dosage or type of immune response component delivered. Such a portable drip patch operably coupled to a portable PCR-enabled machine or a functionally similar system has a wide variety of applications, for example, including, but not limited to, when medical personnel visit an area in which a disease is endemic, and/or when military personnel enter territory in which unknown pathogens may be present. Other modifications of the subject matter herein will be appreciated by one of skill in the art in light of the teachings herein.
Those having skill in the art will recognize that the present application teaches modifications of the devices, structures, and/or processes within the spirit of the teaching herein. For example, in one aspect, a potential host may use an administering device including the immune response components pre-programmed to provide the potential host with the necessary immune response-mediated protection over a an interval of time, and/or to anticipate pattern changes in the epitopes of the agent 100. Other modifications of the subject matter herein will be appreciated by one of skill in the art in light of the teachings herein.
Those having skill in the art will recognize that the present application teaches modifications of the devices, structures, and/or processes within the spirit of the teaching herein. For example, in one aspect, RNA blockers, and/or single stranded RNAi technology may be used to down-regulate genes or interfere productively with their expression, or to otherwise usefully modulate components of the immune system in conjunction with the method. Other modifications of the subject matter herein will be appreciated by one of skill in the art in light of the teachings herein.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the foregoing specific exemplar) processes and/or devices and/or technologies are representative of more general processes and/or devices and/or technologies taught elsewhere herein, such as in the claims filed herewith and/or elsewhere in the present application.
Those having skill in the art will recognize that the state of the art has progressed to the point where there is little distinction left between hardware and software implementations of aspects of systems; the use of hardware or software is generally (but not always, in that in certain contexts the choice between hardware and software can become significant) a design choice representing cost vs. efficiency vs. operational convenience tradeoffs. Those having skill in the art will appreciate that there are various vehicles by which processes and/or systems and/or other technologies described herein can be effected (e.g., hardware, software, and/or firmware), and that the preferred vehicle will vary with the context in which the processes and/or systems and/or other technologies are deployed. For example, if an implementer determines that speed and accuracy are paramount, the implementer may opt for a mainly hardware and/or firmware vehicle; alternatively, if flexibility, is paramount, the implementer may opt for a mainly software implementation; or, yet again alternatively, the implementer may opt for some combination of hardware, software, and/or firmware. Hence, there are several possible vehicles by which the processes and/or devices and/or other technologies described herein may be effected, none of which is inherently and universally superior to any other, in that any vehicle to be utilized is a choice dependent upon the context in which the vehicle will be deployed and the specific concerns (e.g., speed, flexibility, or predictability) of the implementer, any of which may vary substantially.
The foregoing detailed description has set forth various embodiments of the devices and/or processes via the use of block diagrams, flowcharts, and/or examples. Insofar as such block diagrams, flowcharts, and/or examples contain one or more functions and/or operations, it will be understood by those within the art that each function and/or operation within such block diagrams, flowcharts, or examples can be implemented, individually and/or collectively, by a wide range of hardware, software, firmware, or virtually any combination thereof. In one embodiment, several portions of the subject matter described herein may be implemented via Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), digital signal processors (DSPs), other integrated formats, or other extensively-integrated formats.
However, those skilled in the art will recognize that some aspects of the embodiments disclosed herein, in whole or in part, can be equivalently implemented in standard integrated circuits, as one or more computer programs running on one or more computers (e.g., as one or more programs running on one or more computer systems), as one or more programs running on one or more processors (e.g., as one or more programs running on one or more microprocessors), as firmware, or as virtually any combination thereof, and that designing the circuitry and/or writing the code for the software and or firmware would be well within the skill of one of skill in the art in light of this disclosure. In addition, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the mechanisms of the subject matter described herein are capable of being distributed as a program product in a variety of forms, and that an illustrative embodiment of the subject matter subject matter described herein applies equally regardless of the particular type of signal-bearing media used to actually carry out the distribution. Examples of a signal-bearing media include, but are not limited to, the following: recordable-type media such as floppy disks, hard disk drives, CD/DVD-ROMs, digital tape, and computer memory devices of various types; and data-transmission type media such as digital and analog communication links using TDM or IP-based communication links (e.g., packetized data links).
In a general sense, those skilled in the art will recognize that the various aspects described herein which can be implemented, individually and/or collectively, by a wide range of hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof can be viewed as being composed of various types of “electrical circuitry.” Consequently, as used herein “electrical circuitry” includes, but is not limited to, electrical circuitry having at least one discrete electrical circuit, electrical circuitry having at least one integrated circuit, electrical circuitry having at least one application-specific integrated circuit, electrical circuitry forming a general-purpose computing device configured by a computer program (e.g., a general-purpose computer configured by a computer program which at least partially carries out processes and/or devices described herein, or a microprocessor configured by a computer program which at least partially carries out processes and/or devices described herein), electrical circuitry forming a memory device (e.g., forms of random access memory), and/or electrical circuitry forming a communications device (e.g., a modem, communications switch, or optical-electrical equipment).
Those skilled in the art will recognize that it is common within the art to describe devices and/or processes in the fashion set forth herein, and thereafter use standard engineering practices to integrate such described devices and/or processes into data-processing systems. That is, at least a portion of the devices and/or processes described herein can be integrated into a data-processing system via a reasonable amount of experimentation. Those having skill in the art will recognize that a typical data-processing system generally includes one or more of a system unit housing, a display device, a video display device, a memory such as volatile and/or non-volatile memory, processors such as microprocessors and digital signal processors, computational entities such as operating systems, drivers, user interfaces (e.g., graphical), and applications programs, one or more interaction devices, such as a touch-pad or screen, and/or control systems including feedback loops and control motors (e.g., feedback for sensing position and/or velocity; control motors for moving and/or adjusting components such as valves and/or quantities). A typical data-processing system may be implemented utilizing any suitable commercially available components, such as those typically found in digital computing/communication and/or network computing/communication systems.
All of the referenced U.S. patents, U.S. patent application publications, U.S. patent applications, foreign patents, foreign patent applications, and/or non-patent publications referred to in this specification and/or listed in any Application Data Sheet, are incorporated herein by reference, in their entireties.
The herein described aspects depict different components contained within, or connected with, different other components. It is to be understood that such depicted architectures are merely exemplary, and that in fact many other architectures can be implemented which achieve the same functionality. In a conceptual sense, any arrangement of components to achieve the same functionality is effectively “associated” such that the desired functionality is achieved. Hence, any two components herein combined to achieve a particular functionality can be seen as “associated with” each other such that the desired functionality is achieved, irrespective of architectures or intermedial components, Likewise, any two components so associated can also be viewed as being “operably connected”, or “operably coupled”, to each other to achieve the desired functionality, and any two components capable of being so associated can also be viewed as being “operably couplable”, to each other to achieve the desired functionality. Specific examples of operably couplable include but are not limited to physically mateable and/or physically interacting components mid/or wirelessly interactable and/or wirelessly interacting components.
While particular aspects of the present subject matter described herein have been shown and described, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that, based upon the teachings herein, changes and modifications may be made without departing from this subject matter described herein and its broader aspects and, therefore, the appended claims are to encompass within their scope all such changes and modifications as are within the true spirit and scope of this subject matter described herein. Furthermore, it is to be understood that the invention is solely defined by the appended claims. It will be understood by those within the art that, in general, terms used herein, and especially in the appended claims (e.g., bodies of the appended claims) are generally intended as “open” terms (e.g., the term “including” should be interpreted as “including but not limited to,” the term “having” should be interpreted as “having at least,” the term “includes” should be interpreted as “includes but is not limited to,” etc.). It will be further understood by those within the art that if a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is intended, such an intent will be explicitly recited in the claim, and in the absence of such recitation no such intent is present. For example, as an aid to understanding, the following appended claims may contain usage of the introductory phrases “at least one” and “one or more” to introduce claim recitations. However, the use of such phrases should not be construed to imply that the introduction of a claim recitation by the indefinite articles “a” or “an” limits any particular claim containing such introduced claim recitation to inventions containing only one such recitation, even when the same claim includes the introductory phrases “one or more” or “at least one” and indefinite articles such as “a” or “an” (e.g., “a” and/or “an” should typically be interpreted to mean “at least one” or “one or more”); the same holds true for the use of definite articles used to introduce claim recitations. In addition, even if a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is explicitly recited, those skilled in the art will recognize that such recitation should typically be interpreted to mean al least the recited number (e.g., the bare recitation of “two recitations,” without other modifiers, typically means at least two recitations, or two or more recitations). Furthermore, in those instances where a convention analogous to “at least one of A, B, and C, etc.” is used, in general such a construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understand the convention (e.g., “a system having at least one of A, B, and C” would include but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and/or A, B, and C together, etc.). In those instances where a convention analogous to “at least one of A, B, or C, etc.” is used, in general such a construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understand the convention (e.g., “a system having at least one of A, B, or C” would include but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and/or A, B, and C together, etc.). In addition, the word “or” as used herein and especially in the appended claims, typically means inclusive or (e.g., a “system having A or B” would include but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone, and/or A and B together, etc.)
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 11004419 | Dec 2004 | US |
| Child | 11895341 | Aug 2007 | US |
