Long Island University

2 ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN JoVE

Immunology and Infection

Overlapping Peptide Library to Map Qa-1 Epitopes in a Protein

Yi Xu^*1, Samiksha Wasnik^*1, David J. Baylink¹, Edmundo Carreon Berumen¹, Xiaolei Tang¹

¹Department of Medicine, Division of Regenerative Medicine, Loma Linda University

Qa-1 (HLA-E in human) belongs to a group of non-classical major histocompatibility complex 1b molecules. Immunization with Qa-1-binding epitopes has been shown to augment tissue-specific immune regulation and ameliorate several autoimmune diseases. Herein we describe an overlapping peptide library strategy for the identification of Qa-1 epitopes in a protein.

Immunology and Infection

In Vivo Augmentation of Gut-Homing Regulatory T Cell Induction

Hongzheng Bi^1,2, Samiksha Wasnik¹, David J. Baylink¹, Chenfan Liu^1,3,4, Xiaolei Tang^1,3

¹Division of Regenerative Medicine, Department of Medicine, Loma Linda University, ²Zhengzhou University, ³Department of Veterinary Biomedical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, Long Island University, ⁴Jinan Infectious Disease Hospital, Shandong University

Here we present a protocol for in vivo augmentation of gut-homing regulatory T cell induction. In this protocol, dendritic cells are engineered to locally produce high concentrations of the active vitamin D (1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D or 1,25[OH]₂D) and the active vitamin A (retinoic acid or RA) de novo.