2024 - Adoptive Cell Therapy: Exploring and Influencing Heterogeneity of TILs and CAR T Cells

The use of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells as adoptive cell therapies is a highly effective and potentially curative treatment for metastatic melanoma and the cluster of differentiation 19 (CD19+) B-cell malignancies, respectively. The personalization of these cellular therapies leads to a high diversity of outcomes between patients.
Infusion products received by individuals undergoing treatment also contain diverse cell populations. Therefore, navigating the heterogeneity within bulk populations of TILs and CAR T cells has been a major hurdle for predicting patient outcomes, as well as for improving adoptive cell therapy. In fact, the introduction of checkpoint inhibitors during the initial expansion phase of production can have remarkable downstream effects on TILs.
The co-encapsulation of individual effector and target cells using Xdrop® technology allows precise evaluation of cellular interactions as the platform provides a viable intra-droplet environment and is compatible with common flow cytometers and reagents. Notably, CAR T cells co-encapsulated with CD19+ target cells demonstrate variable levels of granzyme B production, suggesting nuanced differences in the cytolytic abilities of these cells.
Using DNA barcoding, the expert speaker explored the cancer-specific T-cell receptor (TCR) diversity of TILs from seven patients to discover that anti-cytotoxic T-lymphocyte–associated antigen 4 (CTLA-4) treatment can increase the scope of TIL reactivity, while anti-programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) intervention can increase the volume of overall TIL production.
Register for this webinar today to learn how to navigate the heterogeneity within bulk populations of TILs and CAR T cells as well as improve adoptive cell therapy.
Keywords: Immunotherapy, Targeted Therapy, Melanoma, Oncology, CAR-T Immunotherapy, Cell Therapy, Genomics, Patient Outcomes, Biotherapeutics, Therapeutic Areas, Laboratory Technology, CAR T-Cell Therapy, Bioanalytical Testing, Cell & Gene Therapies, Basic Research