Generation and evaluation of the efficacy of rhesus monkey soluble cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen-4 in the allogeneic mixed lymphocyte reaction.

Cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen-4 (CTLA-4; CD152) is a transmembrane protein that is structurally similar to CD28. As CTLA-4 has a much higher binding affinity to B7 than CD28, several approaches using soluble CTLA-4 have been tried to down-regulate T cell activity by blocking the interaction between CD28 and B7. We constructed soluble rhesus monkey CTLA-4 immunoglobulin (CTLA-4Ig) containing a critical binding site to B7 combined with a constant Ig heavy chain region in a mammalian system. Flow cytometry analyses indicated that soluble rhesus monkey CTLA-4Ig bound to rhesus monkey CD86 (B7.2). Moreover, soluble rhesus monkey CTLA-4Ig more effectively blocked the rhesus monkey-rhesus monkey allogeneic mixed lymphocyte reaction compared with that of humans. These results indicate that soluble rhesus monkey CTLA-4Ig may be useful in preclinical trials in a rhesus monkey model.