ABSTRACT
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a major cause of bronchiolitis and pneumonia in infants and young children under 2 years of age, and causes annual epidemics which peak during the winter months. RSV infection can be life threatening in severely immunosuppressed patients of any age. The ideal approach to RSV disease would be effective vaccination of all infants. A formalin-killed RSV vaccine tested in the late 1960s not only failed to confer protection, but increased the severity of lower respiratory tract illness in vaccinated children who experienced RSV infection. Reshaped human immunoglobulin G monoclonal antibodies specific for RSV are expected to retain the desirable properties of human immunoglobulin products including long serum half-life, distribution to the lungs upon parenteral administration, and the absence of significant immunogenicity, while demonstrating additional clinical advantages. In the pharmacokinetic study adult male cynomolgus macaques were administered single intravenous doses of RSHZ19.
