Patent ID: 8685651

Claim:
A method for screening for an anti-CD4 antibody for use in immunotherapy, the method comprising: (a) contacting a candidate anti-CD4 antibody with CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells; (b) assessing the ability of said candidate to activate said CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells by conducting an effector T cell proliferation assay comprising an allogenic mixed lymphocyte reaction in which the CD4 + CD25 + regulatory T cells from step (a) are cocultured with allogenic CD4 + CD45RA+CD25âˆ’ T cell in the presence of CD2-depleted peripheral blood mononuclear cells that are syngenic for the CD4 + CD25 + regulatory T cells; and (c) identifying and selecting an anti-CD4 antibody which activates the CD4+CD25+ regulatory T cells to inhibit the proliferation of CD4 +CD45RA+CD25âˆ’ T cells in step (b), wherein the anti-CD4 antibody is a humanized version of an antibody comprising the complementarily-determining regions (CDRs) of SEQ ID NOs: 10 and 9, displayed in FIGS. 3 and 4 .