SAN DIEGO (PRWEB) April 11, 2018
In a research article just published in PLOS ONE, scientists at ACEA Biosciences, a biotechnology company focused on the development of high performance cell analysis instruments, investigate the efficacy of a real-time in vitro potency assay for evaluating various immunotherapy treatments against both solid and liquid tumor cells. Immunotherapy, a powerful approach in which a patient’s immune system is prompted to attack cancerous cells, continues to show tremendous therapeutic potential. Despite substantial investment and research efforts into this area, challenges with developing effective treatments persist due to the complexity of the immune microenvironment. New methods are therefore being developed to address issues with predictability, long term efficacy, and variable patient responses to treatments.
In this study, the scientists develop a non-invasive assay using the xCELLigence platform to monitor cancer cell behavior as NK cells, CAR-T cells, Bi-specific T cell Engagers (BiTEs) or immune checkpoint inhibitors are added. Designed to mimic physiologically relevant conditions, the xCELLigence platform continuously monitors target cell number, size, and viability while the cells remain undisturbed in the incubator. Besides research applications, the robustness and reproducibility of this assay make it well suited for quality control assessment of immunotherapies during batch manufacturing, or ex vitro clinical testing of a patient’s engineered immune cells prior to using them for treatment.
The novel real-time assay has significant advantages over traditional endpoint assays, which typically require labeling or engineering of the cells, are labor intensive to set up, and capture a single data point per sample. The chromium 51 release assay, long considered the gold standard for evaluating immune cell-mediated killing, requires the use of radioactive material and cannot accommodate time points longer than ~8 hours due to the high spontaneous leakage of isotope from the target cells. In contrast, the high sensitivity, continuous data acquisition, and flexible assay window (minutes to days) of the xCELLigence assay enable a much more comprehensive analysis of serial killing by the immune cells.
To standardize the analysis of therapeutic efficacy, the researchers developed an immunotherapy-specific software suite which enables the calculation of quantitative parameters such as KT50 (the amount of time it takes to kill 50% of the target tumor cells) and tumor cell % cytolysis over time. They further validated the real-time assay using parallel image-based analyses and flow cytometry, demonstrating that “the xCELLigence platform [is] well suited for potency assays, providing quantitative assessment with high reproducibility and a greatly simplified work flow.”
Scientists from ACEA Biosciences will be presenting their work at the 2018 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting in Chicago, April 14 to April 18.
AACR 2018 Poster Details
Title: Monitoring immune cells-mediated cytolysis through impedance technology allows kinetic analysis of reagent efficacy
Poster Number: 5715 / 21
Session: Immune Monitoring / Clinical Correlates
Track: Immunology
Session Date and Time: Wednesday, April 18, 2018, 8:00am - 12:00pm (CT)
Authors: F. Cerignoli, B. Xi, G. Guenther, L. Muir, B. Lamarche, J. Shields, Y. Abassi, ACEA Biosciences
AACR 2018 Booth Number: #1135
To read their full manuscript, click here.
About xCELLigence® RTCA Instruments
xCELLigence Real-Time Cell Analysis (RTCA) instruments utilize gold biosensors embedded in the bottom of microtiter wells to non-invasively monitor the status of cells using the principle of cellular impedance. In short, cells act as insulators – impeding the flow of a miniscule electric current between electrodes. This impedance signal is measured automatically, at an interval defined by the user, and provides an extremely sensitive readout of cell number, cell size, cell-substrate attachment strength, and cell invasion/migration. xCELLigence RTCA instruments are being used in both academia and industry for basic and applied applications ranging from cancer immunotherapy and cardiotoxicity to drug discovery and viral titer determination. To date xCELLigence has been used in more than 1,400 publications, which can be viewed in a searchable library.
About ACEA Biosciences
Founded in 2002, ACEA Biosciences is a pioneer in the development and commercialization of high performance, cutting edge cell analysis platforms for life science research. ACEA’s xCELLigence impedance-based, label-free, real-time cell analysis instruments and NovoCyte® flow cytometer are used in pre-clinical drug discovery and development, toxicology, safety pharmacology, and basic academic research. More than 2,000 instruments have been placed globally.
For more information visit http://www.aceabio.com
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For further information please contact:
ACEA Biosciences, Inc.
Dr. Jeff Xue
Phone: 1-858-724-0928, x3075
email: jxue(at)aceabio(dot)com