Portfolio Overview
Transgenic mice that express human HLA molecules are used for cancer immunotherapy research in several ways. Example applications include evaluation of HLA-restricted CTL epitope responses in vivo, determining the immunogenicity of novel cancer vaccines, and to test expansion and response of chimeric antigen receptor T cells.
Cancer vaccines are a promising avenue for immunotherapy development. Like other vaccines, they often utilize rational design by epitope identification and selection. In silico modeling may be used to identify potential epitopes recognized by the human immune system, but in vivo confirmatory testing is frequently required to confirm immunogenicity.
One of the challenges in this area is that epitope recognition varies significantly from species to species, so animal models may not accurately model epitope binding by human HLAs. Our mice expressing human HLAs present one way to overcome this hurdle. These strains can be combined with syngeneic tumor modeling to test efficacy of cancer vaccines.
Taconic Biosciences offers a portfolio of human HLA mice covering key human HLA supertypes.
Key Human HLA Supertypes
| HLA Class I | ||
|---|---|---|
| Model | Strain Background | Description |
| HLA-A2.1 | C57BL/6 or CB6F1 | Expresses the chimeric HLA-A2.1 class I molecule (representing the HLA-A2 supertype) on the surface of T and B cells. |
| HLA-A11 | C57BL/6 or CB6F1 | Expresses the chimeric HLA-A11 class I molecule (representing the HLA-A3 supertype) on the surface of T and B cells. |
| HLA-A1 | C57BL/6 or CB6F1 | Expresses the chimeric HLA-A1 class I molecule (representing the HLA-A1 supertype) on the surface of T and B cells. |
| HLA-A24 | C57BL/6 or CB6F1 | Expresses the chimeric HLA-A24 class I molecule (representing the HLA-A24 supertype) on the surface of T and B cells. |
| HLA-B7 | C57BL/6 or CB6F1 | Expresses the chimeric HLA-B7 class I molecule (representing the HLA-B7 supertype) on the surface of T and B cells. |
| HLA-B44 | C57BL/6 or CB6F1 | Expresses the chimeric HLA-B44 class I molecule (representing the HLA-B44 supertype) on the surface of T and B cells. |
| HLA CLASS II | ||
| Abb Knockout/ Transgenic HLA-DR4 | C57BL/6 | Expresses the chimeric HLA-DR4 class II molecule on the surface of T and B cells |
Custom crosses to immunodeficient models or other genetically modified strains are available. Inquire for details.
