Overview of a HLA-Ig based "Lego-like system" for T cell monitoring, modulation and expansion

Mathias Oelke1, Jonathan P Schneck

  • 1Department of Pathology, Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, Ross Research Bldg Room 644 B, Baltimore, MD 21205-2196, USA.

Immunologic Research
|January 21, 2010
PubMed

Recent advances in molecular medicine have shown that soluble MHC-multimers can be valuable tools for both analysis and modulation of antigen-specific immune responses in vitro and in vivo. In this review, we describe the use of dimeric human and mouse major histocompatibility complexes, MHC-Ig, as part of an artificial Antigen-Presenting Cell (aAPC). MHC-Ig-based aAPC and its derivatives represent an exciting new platform technology for measuring and manipulating immune responses in vitro as well as in vivo. This new technology has the potential to help overcome many of the obstacles associated with limitations in current antigen-specific approaches of immunotherapy for the treatment of cancer, infectious diseases and autoimmunity.