Patent ID: 7504554

Claim:
A method for screening candidate therapeutic agents for multiple sclerosis (MS), wherein said candidate therapeutic agents interact with the extracellular domain of the human Cytotoxic T-Lymphocyte Antigen 4 (CTLA4), comprising: (a) injecting antigens that induce MS-like pathology and clinical symptoms into a transgenic mouse whose genome comprises a nucleic acid encoding a humanized CTLA4 and whose T cells express the humanized CTLA4, wherein the humanized CTLA4 comprises an extracellular domain of a human CTLA4, and said nucleic acid comprises exon 2 of a human CTLA4 receptor gene, and exons 1, 3, and 4 of a mouse or human CTLA4 receptor gene, (b) administering the candidate agent to said mouse, and (c) monitoring the development of MS-like pathology and clinical symptoms in said mouse.