Extracorporeal affinity adsorption treatments which are aimed at the substantial removal of two or more compounds that are etiological in the pathogenesis of diseases in man provide effective therapeutic intervention means for these diseases. The methods are particularly suitable for the treatment of atherosclerosis, cancer, degenerative and autoimmune diseases. Extracorporeal chelation and immunotherapy for atherosclerosis, extracorporeal chelation treatment with on-line regeneration or replacement of chelant, extracorporeal immunotherapy with antibody fragments, and extracorporeal immunoadsorption utilizing antibodies bound to Protein A are also disclosed.

Claims

I claim:

1. An extracorporeal device including means for drawing from a mammal a fluid, means in the device for exposing at least a portion of the fluid to at least a first and a second specific affinity binding means for chemically binding at least one chemical species in the fluid to the first binding means and for binding at least a second chemical species in the fluid to the second binding means, and means for returning to the mammal at least a fraction of the fluid, the first specific affinity binding means binding to a moiety comprising an enhancing antibody.

2. The device of claim 1 including at least one semipermeable membrane for preventing the specific affinity adsorbents from entering the body of the mammal.

3. The device of claim 1 wherein the fluid is blood, the device including means for attaching the device into the blood circulatory system of the mammal.

4. The device of claim 3 wherein the at least a portion of the fluid is plasma.

5. The device of claim 1 including means for exposing the fluid simultaneously to the first specific affinity binding means and the second specific affinity binding means.

6. The device of claim 1 including means for exposing the fluid sequentially to the first specific affinity binding means and the second specific affinity binding means.

7. The device of 1 wherein at least the first specific affinity binding means binds immunologically.

8. The device of 1 wherein at least the second specific affinity binding means binds immunologically.

9. The device of 7 wherein at least the first specific affinity binding means and the second specific affinity binding means bind immunologically.

10. The device of 1 wherein at least one of the specific affinity binding means is a nonimmunological chemical affinity adsorbent.

11. The device of claim 1 wherein the first specific affinity binding means is chosen from the group consisting of Protein A, Protein G, and C1q bound to anti-C1q antibody.

12. The device of claim 1 wherein the second specific affinity binding means is chosen from the group consisting of Protein A, Protein G, and C1q bound to anti-C1q antibody.

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