New Assay for Measurement of Antigen Processing and Presentation

ProImmune Ltd has launched ProPresent™, a new assay service for the direct identification of the portions of a protein (antigen) that are made visible to T cells by the immune system. The assay identifies antigens that are displayed to T cells by Class II HLA molecules on dendritic cells, which is the most direct way for measuring antigen processing and presentation. ProPresent is the only commercially available service for this purpose and will accelerate drug and vaccine development programs where understanding detailed immune responses to a new compound is essential. T cells play a critical role in all immune responses, including in fighting infections, cancer and in autoimmunity. They also play a key role in allergic reactions and in unwanted immune responses against biological drugs and compounds.

The new assay can reveal antigens for compounds tested on a representative set of donor samples in typically only six weeks and in a cost-effective manner. Using dendritic cell culture followed by HLA-peptide elution and sequencing mass spectrometry, epitopes from the compound that are naturally presented to the immune system are identified. The information obtained from ProPresent cannot be obtained from functional cellular immune assays such as ELISpot and proliferation assays, or from HLA binding assays. Dr Nikolai Schwabe, CEO, said: “With ProPresent we are closing a considerable gap in our ability to understand immune responses. The launch of our unique assay adds to our unmatched suite of services for understanding immunity and underscores ProImmune’s leadership as an innovator in this field.”