(Evotec) Mice humanized for the immune system as validated tool for therapeutic antibody development

Abstract

Background

Therapeutic antibodies modulating the immune response are frequently specific for human proteins but fail to cross-react with the corresponding rodent homologs. Hence, their preclinical development requires suitable “humanized” mouse models, i.e. mice bearing a human immune system, so that immunotherapies can be evaluated in a more relevant immune context in vivo. Such “humanized” mice are developed by reconstituting the immune system of immunodeficient animals with human immune cells from 2 possible origins: mature peripheral blood mononuclear cells prepared from buffy coats (huPBMC mice) or CD34⁺ hematopoietic stem cells (huCD34⁺ mice) isolated from cord blood. According to the compound to be tested and the goal of the research, one model may be preferred over the other.