T-Cell Proliferation Assays

ProImmune has launched DC T Cell Proliferation Assays based on its CFSE detection platform to assess the immunogenicity of whole proteins. This sensitive and versatile assay measures if candidate proteins induce helper CD4⁺ T cell proliferation that may lead to anti-drug antibody responses or other unwanted immunogenicity. The novel assay significantly improves data quality over traditional radioactive assay methods. It also offers the possibility for phenotyping T cell responses further, for example, to understand more clearly the actual observed phenomena during clinical stage development. The assay, which is run on samples from ProImmune’s high resolution tissue-typed bank of healthy PBMC donor samples, arguably represents the most powerful tool yet for comparing the antigenicity of different candidate proteins at a preclinical stage. In the assay, monocyte derived dendritic cells (DCs), obtained from healthy PBMC donors, are loaded with the candidate protein. These loaded and activated DCs process and present the candidate protein to CFSE-labeled PBMCs. Where the candidate protein has immunogenic properties, CD4⁺ T cell proliferation occurs. This is detected through a CFSE-based flow cytometric assay to accurately determine the percentage of proliferating CD4⁺ T cells. Antigen presentation by dendritic cells avoids assay interference due to direct modulation of target T cells by the candidate drug, and allows the relative antigenicity of different leads to be compared directly. ProImmune Ltd., 888-505-7765, www.proimmune.com