Innovative Cytotoxicity Assays Utilizing Imaging Cytometry to Investigate Anti-Tumor Immunity
The ongoing pursuit of novel anti-cancer therapeutics must consider the potential for off-target effects on the immune system.
The ongoing pursuit of novel anti-cancer therapeutics must consider the potential for off-target effects on the immune system.
Emily Whitehead, cancer survivor, holding Nexcelom cell counting sheep. Thanks to the lifesaving T cell therapy clinical trial at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Emily Whitehead is now two years cancer free. Diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) right after her 5th birthday, doctors discovered that Emily’s leukemia was particularly resistant to chemotherapy, as are roughly 15% of the total number of ALL cases. After two recurrences of the disease, Emily’s parents enrolled her in a clinical trial for CTL019, an experimental therapeutic using a patient’s own reprogrammed T cells to eliminate the cancer cells. Now 9 years old, [...]
The MD Anderson Cancer Center investigated how a patient’s anti-cancer T cells might be better protected from the cytotoxic effects of the anti-thymidylate drugs (AThys; such as methotrexate) used to treat lung, breast, colon, and pancreas cancers. Although AThys successfully attack cancer cells, the drugs also reduce a patient’s own anti-cancer T cell population, which plays an important role in helping the patient overcome the disease. Using Jurkat, AaPC cells, and mutated human proteins called muteins, researchers were able to manufacture T cells that were resistant to cytotoxic levels of AThys. The Cellometer K2 and Trypan Blue were used to [...]