title: Anti-CD4 monoclonal antibodies suppress murine collagen-induced arthritis only at the time of primary immunisation.
abstract: We have examined the ability of a mixture of two anti-CD4 mAbs to protect against collagen-induced arthritis. Anti-CD4 mAbs, administered around the time of primary immunisation with type II collagen in adjuvant, reduced the subsequent incidence of arthritis from 67 to 16% (P < 0.01 by Fisher exact test). However, anti-CD4 treatment 3 weeks after the primary immunisation did not significantly affect the incidence of arthritis. This result extends earlier findings concerning the lack of efficacy of anti-CD4 treatment in established collagen-induced arthritis. Next, the ability of anti-CD4 treatment to induce tolerance to bovine type II collagen (and hence protect against arthritis) was evaluated using a regime known to be capable of inducing tolerance to human gamma-globulin. Anti-CD4 treatment completely failed to induce tolerance to type II collagen, as judged by levels of anti-collagen antibody, or protect against collagen-induced arthritis. These findings highlight the potential limitations of anti-CD4 mAb depleting treatment in immunotherapy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, Babraham Institute, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: R O
authors.initials: RO
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Whyte
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal / Q000276:immunology / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001169:Arthritis, Experimental / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000276:immunology / Q000628:therapy*; D015704:CD4 Antigens / Q000276:immunology*; D002417:Cattle; D003094:Collagen / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D007108:Immune Tolerance; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D007596:Joints / Q000473:pathology; D051379:Mice; D008811:Mice, Inbred DBA; D051381:Rats
chemical_list: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D015704:CD4 Antigens; D003094:Collagen