The PI work is concerned with the study of manipulation of corneal cell growth and the diminution of T cell dependent inflammatory responses in corneal injury and a model of uveitis. He has developed a new class of structurally designed immunologic mimetics for these studies. the compounds were designed from discrete complementarily determining regions of a particular anti-receptor antibody and another member of the immunoglobulin gene family, CD4. These molecules operate via novel mechanisms and offer the opportunity to study agonist and antagonistic effects on receptor specific functions. The small CDR form designed from the anti-receptor antibody stimulates corneal cell growth and accelerates corneal would defect closure. This CDR form has an opposite affect on activated T cells in which it inhibits activation. This compound will be studied in corneal damage associated with herpes simplex disease and in other studies dealing with corneal defects. The compound developed from CD4 has the ability to inhibit T cell activation. This compound will be studied in models of T cell dependent corneal inflammation and in models of uveitis. These compounds have many chemical and immunologic benefits over the intact macromolecules from which they were derived.
