The immunological synapse that occurs between T lymphocytes and Dendritic cells (DCs) is a key component of an effective immune response and is controlled by a combination of stimulatory and inhibitory signals – also called immune checkpoints. As to trigger a better anti-tumor immune response, interventions through a fine-tuning of these control signals within the immunological synapse represent one of the most promising cancer immunotherapy strategies.
In order to investigate novel immunotherapeutics capable of enhancing DC-mediated T cell activation, Explicyte set up and validated a robust and high throughput human allogeneic mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR) assay, which consists in a co-culture of CD4+ T cells (responder) with monocyte-derived DCs (stimulator) and in the HTRF-based quantitation of IFNγ, a relevant surrogate of T cell activation. Our assay is a well-suited system for biologics and small molecules assessment either as single agents and/or for combination therapies, including with e.g. immune checkpoint inhibitors, and can thus be ran in various types of studies spanning from screening to potency profiling and functional characterization of candidate compounds.