AIDS VACCINE RESEARCH LABORATORY David Watkins, P.I.

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Our research group has been working on MHC Typing of Rhesus macaques of Indian descent for the past several years. We have been awarded a grant which enables us to develop MHC Typing of these particular alleles. We are now permitted to offer this service at cost (labor and consumables) to academic researchers. We do not want to exclude private researchers, but because our funding is from public monies, we are mandated to include overhead costs in pricing for these investigators.

Currently we can offer MHC typing for 18 MHC alleles. Nine class I alleles were initially chosen due to their importance in SIV epitope presentation. These alleles are: Mamu-A*01, Mamu-A*02, Mamu-A*08, Mamu-A*11, Mamu-B*01, Mamu-B*03, Mamu-B*04, Mamu-B*08, and Mamu-B*17. Five additional class I alleles of interest are Mamu-B*07/0702/0703^#, Mamu-B*22, Mamu-B*29012, Mamu-B*30 and Mamu-B*48. We can also perform typing for four Class II alleles: Mamu-DPB1*06, Mamu-DRB*w201, Mamu-DRB*w606, Mamu-DRB1*0401/0406/0411^#.

^#note: these primers do not distinguish between the subtypes without sequencing

Of special note to SIV researchers, we have reported that approximately 20% of Mamu-B*17 positive and 50% of Mamu-B*08 positive macaques are able to spontaneously control replication of SIVmac239. ^1,2 Two additional class II alleles, Mamu-DRB1*0306 and Mamu- DRB1*1003, have been show to be enriched in virus infected macaque elite controllers. ³ These class II alleles can be determined by sequencing.

Since sequencing is expensive and time consuming, we are now offering sequencing confirmation only as an additional option for most alleles. This keeps down the cost of the typing, yet is still available for those who wish that additional level of confidence (or to continue looking for new allele variants).