Development and Characterization of a Novel Monoclonal Antibody to Human IL-17A

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Although IL-17A is made by CD4+ Th17 cells and there is an ever-increasing body of literature on these cells, other cells make IL-17A, including CD8+ (Tc17) and g-d T cells, NK cells, and neutrophils. There are many factors that contribute to published findings of the percentage of cells producing IL-17A, including the activation or differentiation conditions, time course of activation, and antibody used for detection. It has been published that high levels of IL-17A are secreted by human PBMCs after anti-CD3/CD28-treatment alone for only 24 hrs. We have developed a new monoclonal antibody (Clone 41802) that is specific for human IL-17A. The specificity of this Ab has been rigorously tested. Clone 41802 detects an increase in IL-17A in PMA/ionomycin-treated human PBMCs over resting cells by intracellular flow cytometry. This finding correlated with Western blot data in Th17-differentiated vs resting CD4+ PBMCs. This clone also detects IL-17A in a population of activated CD3+ PBMCs that is also positive for IL-22 and IL-23 R by flow cytometry. Importantly, clone 41802 detects IL-17A in transfectant cells overexpressing human IL-17A, but not in cells overexpressing human IL-17F. In conclusion, clone 41802 is specific for human IL-17A. Although a larger percentage of IL-17A+ cells are detected in activated PBMCs than with other commercially available clones, this indicates an interesting biological finding, not a lack of antibody specificity.