Patent ID: 7494779

Claim:
A method for identifying the pharmacologic effects of a human antibody or a population of human antibodies for being an agonist, an antagonist, or an inverse agonist to the human receptor CD152 in vitro, comprising the following steps: (a) providing human lymphocytes, a mitogen or a polyclonal activator, and the human antibody or population of human antibodies; (b) preparing plural cultures of the human antibody or population of human antibodies and the mitogen or the polyclonal activator by adding the mitogen or the polyclonal activator to separate containers of increasing concentrations of the human antibody or population of human antibodies; (c) preparing a first control culture by adding the mitogen or the polyclonal activator only to a first control container, and preparing a second control culture by adding the natural agonist CD80 of the human receptor CD152 and the mitogen or the polyclonal activator to a second control container; (d) inoculating human lymphocytes to the plural cultures, the first control culture and the second control culture; (e) determining the degree of apoptosis and proliferation in human lymphocytes in each of the plural cultures, the first control culture and the second control culture; and (f) determining the efficacy of the human antibody or population of human antibodies being an agonist, an antagonist or an inverse agonist to the receptor by the degree of the apoptosis and proliferation of the plural cultures of increasing concentrations of the human antibody or population of human antibodies as compared with the first and second control cultures, wherein (f1) the human antibody or population of human antibodies is determined as an effective agonist to the receptor when the human antibody or population of human antibodies has similar apoptosis and proliferation as compared to the second culture; and (f2) the human antibody or population of human antibodies is determined as an effective antagonist or inverse agonist to the receptor when the human antibody or population of human antibodies has opposite apoptosis and proliferation as compared to the second culture.