# PROTECTIVE EFFECTS OF ANTIPHOSPHOCHOLINE ANTIBODY

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA AT BIRMINGHAM · 1988 · $142,905

## Abstract

In spite of antibiotics, pneumococcal disease is a major cause of infection
in infants and in the elderly.  In the United States it is still the
leading cause of death by infectious agents.  It is the major cause of
otitis media, which accounts for most of the sick baby visits for pediatric
care and meningitis caused by pneumococci is frequently fatal.  The
situation is particularly critical since the incidence of antibiotic
resistant of pneumococci is increasing and since infants fail to make
protective responses to the present pneumococcal vaccine.  Our past studies
indicate that antibodies in normal serum reactive with phosphocholine (PC),
a species specific antigen of the pneumococcal cell wall, may play an
important role in the "non-specific" immunity to pneumococcal infection.
In the mouse, they provide a 1000-10,000-fold increase in resistance to
infection with several strains of pneumococci.  Although virtually all
humans between the ages of 4 and 60 have circulating anti-PC antibody,
infants and many elderly individuals lack detectable antibody.  We propose
to use epidemiological, in vitro, and mouse protection studies to determine
if it is likely that human anti-PC antibodies contribute to the ability of
humans to resist infection with pneumococci, and if a knowledge of serum
anti-PC levels can help predict which individuals are susceptible to
pneumococcal infection.  We hope to make human monoclonal anti-PC
antibodies, which should be very helpful in these investigations.  We also
plan to use mouse hybridoma anti-PC antibodies as a model system to compare
the abilities of the different immunoglobulin isotypes to mediate various
immunological processes.  The T15 family of mouse anti-PC hybridoma
antibodies will be important to those studies since they include antibodies
of different isotypes that have virtually identical variable regions.
These antibodies will be used to compare the abilities of antibodies of
different isotypes to protect against pneumococcal infections in the blood,
lung, middle ear, etc. and will allow us to compare the importance of Fc
and C3b mediated opsonophaocytosis in the protection brought about by
antibodies of different isotypes.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 3128014
- **Project number:** 5R01AI018557-07
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA AT BIRMINGHAM
- **SAM.gov UEI:** YND4PLMC9AN7
- **Principal Investigator:** David E Briles
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 1988
- **Award amount:** $142,905
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 1982-01-01 → 1989-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/3128014

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 3128014, PROTECTIVE EFFECTS OF ANTIPHOSPHOCHOLINE ANTIBODY (5R01AI018557-07). Retrieved via MORVS 2026-10-25 from https://api.morvs.ai/grant/nih/3128014. Licensed CC0.

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