Development and characterization of new swine immune reagents to understand immune correlates for vaccines, infection, and biomedical research outcomes

Abstract

Abstract The USDA-NIFA Swine Immune Toolkit Initiative has a goal to generate priority immune reagents, based on inputs from veterinary immunology researchers worldwide, and pipeline them for marketing. Our efforts are aimed at expression of soluble proteins and production of panels of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) using collaborations with commercial partners for protein expression and mAb production. Generation of new panels of mAbs reactive with porcine IL-5 and IL-21 have been initiated. Panels of mAbs to IL-6, IL-13, IL-17A, IL-28B, CXCL10, and BAFF are being screened for their reactivity in multiple immune assays. Reactivity tests of labeled anti-IL-6, -IL-17A, -IL-13 and -CXCL10 mAbs for intracellular staining of porcine myeloid and T cells using flow cytometry-based assays are in progress. Sensitive sandwich ELISA assays are now available for IL-17A, IL-13 and CXCL10; other targets are being screened for best mAb pairs for such assays. Planning for the generation of SLA-I & -II tetramers to identify swine CD4 and CD8 T cells specific for influenza virus peptides has been initiated. For each target, our goal is to provide the veterinary community with new commercial reagents and standardized techniques using these reagents for their research efforts. Tools and reagents generated by this project will undoubtedly advance swine immune, disease, vaccine, and biomedical research efforts.