Development of a novel monoclonal antibody to human inducible co-stimulator ligand (ICOSL): Biological characteristics and application for enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay

ICOSL (B7-H2, CD275), a co-stimulatory molecule of the B7 superfamily, functions as a positive signal in immune response. To investigate whether ICOSL could be released into sera and the possible biological function of soluble ICOS (sICOSL), we generated and characterized a functional anti-human ICOSL monoclonal antibody (mAb), 20B10, and developed a novel enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) based on two anti-human ICOSL antibodies with different epitope specificities. Using the ELISA system, we found that sICOSL in the serum of healthy donors increases in an age-dependent manner and that the matrix metalloproteinase inhibitor (MMPI) could suppress sICOSL production. Together, these data demonstrate that the existence of circulating sICOSL in human serum might play an important role in immunoregulation.