Abatacept (marketed as Orencia) is a fusion protein composed of the Fc region of the immunoglobulin IgG1, fused to the extracellular domain of CTLA-4, a molecule capable of binding B7. Abatacept is a selective costimulation modulator as it inhibits the costimulation of T cells. It was developed by Bristol-Myers Squibb and is licensed in the United States for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis in the case of inadequate response to anti-TNFα the...
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Abatacept (marketed as Orencia) is a fusion protein composed of the Fc region of the immunoglobulin IgG1, fused to the extracellular domain of CTLA-4, a molecule capable of binding B7. Abatacept is a selective costimulation modulator as it inhibits the costimulation of T cells. It was developed by Bristol-Myers Squibb and is licensed in the United States for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis in the case of inadequate response to anti-TNFα therapy.
Abatacept prevents APCs from delivering the costimulatory signal to T cells to fully activate them. Note that binding of the activation signal without its complementary co-stimulatory signal also helps to enable downregulation of T-Cells by way of T-Cell Anergy. Simple signaling without costimulation allows the cell to recognize the primary signal as "self" and not ramp-up responses for future responses as well.
Ordinarily, full T cell activation requires 1) binding of the T cell receptor to the antigen-MHC complex on the antigen...
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