Appeal No. 2000-1919
Application No. 08/831,993
extracellular stages and the magainins were reported to have no effect on their
intracellular development.” Specification, page 1.
The specification discloses “methods and compositions for inhibiting the
development of intracellular parasites by treating [infected] cells with an effective
concentration of a magainin, PGLa or XPF peptide under conditions whereby the
development of the parasite in said cell is inhibited. The targeted parasites have
been found to increase in [sic] the accessibility of the plasma membrane of the
cell to the peptide and effect an increase in the cytopathic, especially lytic,
sensitivity of the cell to the peptide.” Page 2.
The specification provides two working examples. In the first example,
human red blood cells infected with Plasmodium falciparum parasites were
treated with increasing doses of a magainin peptide (“magainin 2”) and
parasitemia was assayed daily for four days. The results sho wed >50%
reduction in parasitemia in the highest-dosage sample as compared to the
untreated control cells by the fourth day. See Table 1 (page 5). Appellant
concluded that “[t]he data demonstrate dose and time dependent inhibitions of
parasitemia by the magainin peptide.” Page 6.
The second example discloses an immunofluorescent assay to determine
the location of the magainin peptide within treated erythrocytes. Plasmodium -
infected cells treated with magainin 2 as in the first example were assayed using
an antibody against magainin 2 at different times and different magainin
concentrations. Appellant found that “[a]t each time point at each magainin
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