Use of chimeric CD4-src protein tyrosine kinases in drug screening and detection of an immune response
AssigneeThe Regents of the University of California
InventorsDan Littman, Hua Xu
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Abstract
The present invention provides chimeric proteins containing extracellular and transmembrane domains of CD4 and protein tyrosine kinases of the src family. Also provided are DNA molecules encoding the proteins of the present invention and cells containing such DNA molecules. The proteins and cells of the present invention may be employed in methods for identifying drugs that block T cell activation and for identifying low level self-antigens.
Claims10
A method of determining whether a drug is capable of blocking T lymphocyte activation comprising:
- contacting the drug with a T lymphocyte that has been transfected with a nucleic acid sequence that encodes a CD4 molecule lacking the CD4 cytoplasmic domain linked to an src protein tyrosine kinase;
- the said T lymphocyte expresses a chimeric protein comprising a CD4 molecule lacking the CD4 cytoplasmic domain linked to an src protein tyrosine kinase;
- stimulating the said T lymphocyte;
- observing the degree of stimulation of the said T lymphocyte;
- and
- determining whether the drug is capable of blocking said T lymphocyte activation therefrom.
A method for determining whether an antigen of a patient elicits an immune response in the patient, comprising:
- transfecting T lymphocytes of the patient with a DNA molecule comprising a nucleic acid sequence encoding a chimeric protein comprising a CD4 molecule lacking the CD4 cytoplasmic domain linked to an src protein tyrosine kinase;
- contacting the transfected T lymphocytes with the patient's antigen;
- observing stimulation of the T lymphocytes by the antigen;
- and
- determining therefrom whether the antigen elicits an immune response in the patient.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.