Cell type-specific monoclonal antibody cross-reactivity screening in non-human primates and development of comparative immunophenotyping panels for CyTOF

Abstract

Monoclonal antibodies are a critical tool for immunologists, with applications including immunomicroscopy and cytometry, and non-human primates are essential models for drug development. Very few antibodies are raised against non-human primate antigens; instead, researchers typically use anti-human antibodies that are found to be cross-reactive with non-human primates. The NIH maintains a valuable database of cross-reactivity, but its coverage is not complete, especially for less common species. Furthermore, the database only indicates the presence or absence of staining and does not indicate if a different cell population is stained in the NHP species than in humans. We screened 332 antibodies in five immune cell populations in blood from cynomologus macaques (Macaca fascicularis), rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta), African green monkeys (Chlorocebus aethiops) and olive/yellow baboons (Papio hamadryas anubis × Papio hamadryas cynocephalus), thereby generating a comprehensive cross-reactivity catalog that includes cell type-specificity. We subsequently used this catalog to help create large CyTOF mass cytometry panels for three of those species and humans. The curated dataset containing the primary data for each antibody has been deposited as a browsable resource at https://immuneatlas.org and https://flowrepository.org/id/FR-FCM-Z2Z7.