Wednesday, October 16, 2024
10/16/2024
This resource provides unique primate reagents and services not available commercially in support of NIH funded investigators using nonhuman primates (NHP) as pre-clinical models for vaccine efficacy and immunotherapies. State of the art investigations of immune responses related to human infectious diseases, autoimmune diseases, organ and cell allogeneic and xenogeneic transplantation models or immunization procedures that use NHP models increasingly include the use of recombinant cytokines, chemokines, growth factors or immunomodulatory ligands in vivo. While the close evolutionary relationship between human and nonhuman primates generally provides cross reactivity between most human recombinant factors when used with NHP cells, differences in affinity/bioactivity have been noted. More important however, most NHP molecules are not identical to human homologues, often leading to the development of neutralizing antibody responses to the xenogeneic molecule in vivo, markedly restricting the repeated and most optimal in vivo use of select immunomodulators in these models. The ready availability of standardized purified recombinant NHP reagents has largely alleviated this limitation and allowed investigators to address seminal questions using NHP during the past 15 years of funding. Of note, while some commercial companies have started to produce a limited set of NHP cytokines, the costs charged by these companies is generally well beyond the budget of most NIH research awards, further validating the continuous need for this Resource. In addition, testing of in vivo administration of these reagents has markedly revised the clinical administration schedule, leading to more tolerable and efficacious dosing. Last but not least, we propose to leverage the strengths available at NIRC in imaging NHP technologies, to generate novel antibody based ligands for imaging technologies that are increasingly used in support of scientific explorations. Thus, this application requests continued support for allowing this Resource to provide NHP factors, in DNA and protein form. Specifically, the resource will perform the following: 1. Continuation and expansion of preparation, optimization, testing and distribution of NHP cytokines/chemokines and soluble receptors in protein and recombinant DNA expression vectors. 2. Generation and optimization of primate specific PET and fluorescent probes to be used in vivo and 3. Collaboration with the NIH Nonhuman Primate Immune Resource led Dr. D Magnani at UMass in the generation of noncommercially available monoclonal antibodies to NHP cytokines.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).
