T-Cyte is dedicated to providing safe, effective, science-based products.

LTCI is a true immunomodulator, in that it can increase immune response to foreign antigens as well as dampen immune-mediated type responses.


A Landmark Discovery


Throughout the 1980s, the worldwide medical community was in a race to find a cure for the deadly HIV/AIDS pandemic. Medical scientists were using the Feline Leukemia Virus (FeLV) and Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV) as research models for the human diseases. Advances in understanding the immune system were moving at breakneck speed to find a treatment for AIDS.

But even before this all-out scientific chase, Dr. Terry Beardsley, a graduate researcher specializing in immunology at Baylor College of Medicine, had set out to discover a biological treatment pathway that emulated the body’s own, natural defense processes, a discovery that could reverse the fatal effects of severe combined immunodeficiency disease (SCID). This work was published1 and provided a better understanding of bone marrow transplantation and the function of the thymus gland.

Prior to the discovery of the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) virus in 1981, Dr. Beardsley demonstrated, while a faculty member at UCLA, that retrovirus infection alters the structure of the thymus gland and its ability to produce mature functional T-Cells2. The studies supported the theory that retrovirus infection of thymic epithelial cells caused defective T-Cell development, leading to immunodeficiency and/or leukemia3. In 19934 the theory was ultimately proven that the destruction of thymic epithelium is a major contributor to failure of immune regeneration in AIDS.

It was also known that peptides extracted from thymus gland cells could somehow control the immune system’s response to viral attack. As a faculty member at the University of California, San Diego, Dr. Beardsley refined this cellular theory by being the first to clone thymic epithelial cells, successfully identifying and describing one of the immunoregulatory proteins involved in the process and the type of cells that produced it. Dr. Beardsley’s research findings culminated in a landmark publication in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Science5.

By this time, anti-HIV drug cocktails had been developed, promising hope for patients undergoing treatment, but producing the unfortunate result of reduced funding for biological, immune restoration approaches to retroviruses.

Undaunted, Dr. Beardsley formed T-Cyte Therapeutics, Inc. to develop LTCI (Lymphocyte T-cell Immunomodulator) to treat the devastating effects of FeLV and FIV viruses in cats.

LTCI is now available to veterinarians in the U.S. by ordering directly from T-Cyte.

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International order requests should be directed to order@tcyte.com.

T-Cyte Therapeutics , Inc.
41718 Eastman Dr.Murrieta, CA 92562  |  Email: info@tcyte.com

General Information: 800 483-2104 X88  |  Ordering: 800 483-2104 X87  |  Vet Tech: 800 483-2104 X86  |  FAX: 951 346-5575


References:

1. Beardsley, et al., Factors Affecting Immune Responsiveness In Vitro of Germfree Allogeneic Radiation Chimeras. Prog. Clin. Biol. Res. 1983;132C:433-50.

2. Beardsley T.R., and Hays E.F. 1979. Gross Murine Leukemia Virus-Induced Alterations in the Thymus of Preleukemic AKR Mice. Canc. Res. 39:480-486.

3. Hays E.F., and Beardsley, T.R. 1979. Interactions of Thymic Epithelial Cells, Lymphocytes and Murine Leukemia Viruses, in Virus-Lymphocyte Interactions: Implications for Disease. M.R. Profitt (Editor).

4. Stanley, et al. 1993. Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection of the Human Thymus and Disruption of the Thymic Microenvironment in the SCID-hu mouse. J. Exp. Med. 178:1151-1163.

5. Beardsley, et al. Induction of T-Cell Maturation by a cloned line of Thymic Epithelium (TEPI) PNAS. 1983;80:6005-6009.

Research Papers & Publications


Immunologic Effects of Human Thymic Stromal Grafts and Cell Lines


Esther F. Hays
Terry R. Beardsley

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Lymphocyte T-Cell Immunomodulator (LTCI): Review of the Immunopharmacology of a New Veterinary Biologic


Daniel A. Gingerich, DVM, MS

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Induction of T-Cell Maturation by a Cloned Line of Thymic Epithelium (TEPI)


Terry R. Beardsley
Michael Pierschbacher
Gayle D. Wetzel
Esther F. Hays

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Lymphocyte T-Cell Immunomodulator (LTCI), a Potent Immune Modulating Biologic, Exhibits Safety and Efficacy in the Pain Management of Dogs with Moderate-Severe Osteoarthritis


Joel Ehrenzweig, D.V.M.1
Warren Jones, D.V.M.2
Christina Belew, D.V.M.2
Mary Ellen Goldberg, B.S., L.V.T., C.V.T., S.R.A., C.C.R.A.

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