Monochain HLA class I mice, epitopes identification and preclinical tetramer calibration of interest in human diseases. – HLA

HLA class I monochain transgenic mice expressing the transgenic HLA molecules in a totally H-2 class I negative context and representative of 9 of the most frequent HLA class I alleles (A01.3, A02.01, A24.2, B08.1, B27.5, B35.1, B44.2 et Cw7.1) in all human populations, have been created. They will be used for the identification of epitopes of potential vaccine interest in the Muc1 Tumor Associated Antigen (non small cell lung cancer) and the identification of potential autoimmune epitopes in ? cell autoantigens (GAD, IA-2, IGRP, ZnT8 and preproinsulin) associated with human type 1 diabetis. Tetramers corresponding to these HLA class I molecules and these candidate epitopes will be preclinically validated with these mice.
The human relevance of the candidate epitopes identified with the HLA transgenic mice will be evaluated with peripheral blood lymphocytes of cancer or diabetic patients.