Adaptation of HLA testing to characterize the cynomolgus macaque MHC polymorphisms and alloantibody signatures.

Nonhuman primates are the closest animal models to humans with respect to genetics and physiology. Consequently, a critical component of immunogenetics research relies on drawing inferences from the cynomolgus macaque to inform human trials. Despite the conserved organization of the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) between cynomolgus macaques and humans, MHC genotyping of cynomolgus macaques is challenging due to high rates of copy number variants, duplications, and rearrangements, particularly at the MHC class I loci.

Autobiographical perspectives on HLA epitopes: Past, present and future.

This article describes my personal perspectives on HLA epitopes. It is not intended to be a general review of HLA epitopes as several versions have been published before. This article is an autobiographical reflection with three sections.

Immunogenetics of heteroclitic recognition of HLA-DQB1 55R eplet specificity by human alloantibody.

Heteroclitic antibodies bind to a related antigen with higher affinity than to the immunizing antigen to which they were generated. This uncommon phenomenon is not well characterized for antibodies to HLA antigens. Here we analyzed allosera reactivity from two transplant recipients sensitized to mismatched donor alleles DQB1*06:01 and DQB1*06:02 respectively.

High-throughput sequencing defines donor and recipient HLA B-cell epitope frequencies for prospective matching in transplantation.

Compatibility for human leukocyte antigen (HLA) genes between transplant donors and recipients improves graft survival but prospective matching is rarely performed due to the vast heterogeneity of this gene complex. To reduce complexity, we have combined next-generation sequencing and in silico mapping to determine transplant population frequencies and matching probabilities of 150 antibody-binding eplets across all 11 classical HLA genes in 2000 ethnically heterogeneous renal patients and donors. We show that eplets are more common and uniformly distributed between donors and recipients than the respective HLA isoforms.

Second update of the International Registry of HLA Epitopes. I. The HLA-ABC Epitope Database.

The International Registry of HLA Epitopes (http://www.epregistry.com.