Methods of depleting antibodies directed towards major histocompatibility complex

Abstract

The invention provides a method of depleting anti-MHC antibodies in a sample comprising contacting said sample with one or more recombinant MHC molecules or functionally equivalent variants, derivatives or fragments thereof and removing at least the recombinant MHC molecules to which antibodies to said recombinant MHC molecules contained within the sample have bound. This method allows the depletion of one or more specific MHC particularly HLA allele antibodies from a sample.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method of depleting anti-major histocompatibility complex (anti-MHC) antibodies in a sample, said method comprising contacting the sample with a peptide that is epitopic to said anti-MHC antibodies to create an anti-MHC/peptide complex and removing said complex from said sample, wherein said removal of said complex depletes said sample of said anti-MHC antibodies. 
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said epitopic peptide is linked to a solid support. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein said sample is a serum sample. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 3 , wherein said anti-MHC antibodies are anti-human leukocyte antigen (anti-HLA) antibodies. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein said epitopic peptide is a Class I human leukocyte antigen (HLA) molecule. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein said epitopic peptide comprises a monomer of a Class I human leukocyte antigen (HLA) molecule. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein said epitopic peptide comprises a class II heavy chain HLA monomer, a class II beta-2-microglobulin HLA monomer and a folding peptide. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , wherein said folding peptide comprises an amino acid sequence at least 80% identical to the amino acid sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NO:2, SEQ ID NO:3, SEQ ID NO:4, SEQ ID NO:5, SEQ ID NO:6 SEQ ID NO:7 and SEQ ID NO:8. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein said epitopic peptide is a Class II human leukocyte antigen (HLA) molecule. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein said epitopic peptide comprises a monomer of a Class II human leukocyte antigen (HLA) molecule. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein said epitopic peptide comprises a class II heavy chain HLA monomer, a class II beta-2-microglobulin HLA monomer and a folding peptide. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein said folding peptide comprises an amino acid sequence at least 80% identical to the amino acid sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NO:2, SEQ ID NO:3, SEQ ID NO:4, SEQ ID NO:5, SEQ ID NO:6 SEQ ID NO:7 and SEQ ID NO:8.