EAP-Derived Monoclonal Antibodies for Phenotyping Immune Cells of Animal Models of Disease

对传染病的机制、潜在治疗方法和疫苗的研究依赖于动物模型，这些模型可以被与人类相同的病原体感染并表现出类似的症状。在许多情况下，这些动物不是典型的、特征明确的研究模型，而是非传统的物种。这种情况的一个例子是雪貂流感模型。非传统模型的一个主要缺点是，由于缺乏用于表征免疫细胞亚群及其产生的细胞因子的试剂，特别是单克隆抗体，它们的免疫系统无法得到充分的研究。通过传统方法生产这种抗体是费力、耗时和昂贵的。在本项目一期中，我们将使用EAP免疫系统生产所需的单克隆抗体来表征雪貂的免疫细胞。EAP系统使用小的、容易产生的合成肽来诱导和初步表征新抗体。这种方法已被银湖研究公司用于生产数百种单克隆抗体，用于以前无法达到的目标。在这个第一阶段项目成功完成后，将有新的试剂可用于显著提高流感的现有研究能力，流感是世界上最常见的感染之一。

The investigation of mechanisms, potential treatments, and vaccines for infectious diseases relies on animal models that can be infected by the same agent as humans and display similar symptoms. In many cases, such animals are not the typical, well-characterized research models, but rather non-traditional species. One example of this situation is the ferret model of influenza. A major drawback of non-traditional models is that their immune systems cannot be adequately investigated due to the lack of reagents, notably monoclonal antibodies, used for characterizing subsets of immune cells and the cytokines they produce. The production of such antibodies through traditional methods is laborious, time-consuming, and expensive. In Phase I of this project, we will use the EAP Immunization System to produce needed monoclonal antibodies for characterizing immune cells of the ferret. The EAP System uses small, easily produced, synthetic peptides for the induction and preliminary characterization of new antibodies. This methodology has been used by Silver Lake Research to produce hundreds of monoclonal antibodies for targets that were previously inaccessible. At the successful conclusion of this Phase I project, new reagents will be available to significantly enhance existing research capabilities for influenza, one of the most common infections worldwide.