hHLA Mouse Model

Tumor vaccines exert therapeutic effects in humans relying on antigen presentation mediated by human MHC molecules. Mice serve as the most critical preclinical models during tumor vaccine development. Nevertheless, murine MHC presents epitopes that resemble, yet do not perfectly match, those presented by human MHC. Accordingly, conventional murine MHC models pose limitations when investigating how HLA-restricted epitopes drive T cell activation and subsequent in vivo functional responses.
Historical data indicates low transgene expression of human HLA-A2 in early HLA-humanized mouse strains. Even the state-of-the-art third-generation HLA transgenic mouse line (HHDII), which utilizes murine α3, transmembrane and intracellular domains, exhibits drastically reduced peripheral blood CD8+ T cell counts compared to wild-type mice.
In typical designs, replacing endogenous mouse B2M with hB2M-HLA-A2.1-H-2D may impair CD8+ T cell development and skew the proportional distribution of splenic T cell subsets.
MingCeler’s HLA-A*02:01 humanized mouse adopts an optimized HHD design. This strain achieves robust HLA-A2 expression while retaining fully activatable CD8+ T cells.
Cells from HLA-humanized mice can process and recognize peptide epitopes identical or highly homologous to those presented in humans. These models support tumor-specific antibody detection, in vivo vaccine efficacy assessment, and in vivo screening of TCR-T therapeutics, delivering high practical value for immunology research and vaccine development pipelines.