Models - Vacara | Vaccination Against Rheumatoid Arthritis -Sweden

Humanised Models for Translational Drug Development

Predictive in vivo models with human-relevant immune responses for therapeutic research across autoimmunity, oncology and other diseases.

Model Overview

Vacara’s humanized disease models incorporate disease-relevant HLA-DR alleles and physiological antigen presentation to replicate key aspects of human immune responses. They enable the study of T cell–driven pathology and antigen-specific immunity in a highly translational in vivo setting.

By more closely reflecting human immunobiology than conventional models, they provide a versatile platform for investigating disease mechanisms and evaluating therapeutic strategies across autoimmune, inflammatory, and immune-oncology indications.

Why this model matters

Conventional models often fail to predict clinical outcomes due to various limitations. Vacara’s humanized models address this gap by enabling evaluation in a human-relevant immune context.

Improve translational relevance and reduce preclinical-to-clinical failure
Enable assessment of human-specific immune responses
Support mechanism-of-action studies in complex systems
Enable better candidate prioritisation and early go/no-go decisions

Key Features

Human HLA-DR expression for physiologically relevant antigen presentation
Human CD74, CD4 and LAG3, enabling human T cell–driven pathology reflecting key aspects of human rheumatoid arthritis and immune biology
Autoantibody responses enabling evaluation of humoral immunity
Disease-relevant HLA-DRB1 alleles associated with human rheumatoid arthritis and other immune-mediated diseases, further enhancing translational relevance
Reproducible disease induction for controlled studies

Applications

Vacara’s humanized models support a wide range of research and development activities:

Preclinical efficacy testing of therapeutics
Mechanistic studies of immune pathways
Evaluation of biologics, peptides, and vaccine approaches
Antigen-specific tolerance strategies
Assessment of immunomodulatory therapies, including checkpoint inhibitors

The platform is broadly applicable across immune-driven diseases, including autoimmunity, oncology, and inflammatory conditions.

Model Variants

Vacara offers a panel of humanized models expressing disease-relevant HLA-DR alleles to support different research needs and populations:

HLA-DRB1*04:01 – European population relevance
HLA-DRB1*04:05 – East Asian population relevance
HLA-DRB1*04:02 – lower-risk allele for comparative studies

Supports allele-specific investigation of disease mechanisms and therapeutic response.

Validation

Vacara’s models reproduce key features of human immune responses, including T cell activation and autoantibody production. Findings are reported in multiple peer-reviewed publications, demonstrating strong translational relevance.

See supporting publications:

Access Options

Vacara offers multiple pathways to access its humanized models, depending on your project needs. This includes fee-for-service studies, model licensing and collaborative partnership.

Next Steps

Table: Comparison of different models commonly used in drug discovery or therapeutic candidate assessment

Model	High-throughput	Cost	Human molecules	Physiologic expression & function	Biological conclusive	Translational relevance
In silico	Yes	Low	Yes	No	No	Low-moderate
Organoids	No	Low	Yes	No	No	Low-Moderate
Conventional mouse models	No	High	No	Yes	Yes	Moderate
Stem-cell humanized mice	No	High	Yes	No	No	Moderate
Human transgenic mice	No	High	Yes	No	No	Moderate
Human gene knock-in mice (e.g. Vacara humanised model)	No	High	Yes	Yes	Yes	High