Autologous CAR-T Cell Therapy
Cancer cells can evolve adaptive mechanisms to evade the immune system. CAR T-cell therapy can improve the immune response by reprogramming killer T-cells to target ‘sneaky’ cancer cells. Presently, six CAR-T cell therapies have been approved by the FDA for the treatment of several forms of blood cancers1. Despite promising outcomes, CAR T-cell development is intricate and needs to be monitored qualitatively and quantitatively at various stages to confirm successful characterization. Although conventional flow cytometry and live-cell imaging techniques are helpful tools for characterization, they are time-consuming and require highly trained operators to constantly monitor them. More importantly, the resulting quality of data can be highly variable. The Life Sciences companies of Danaher can alleviate the pain points of CAR-T cell therapy research and development with digital and analytical solutions that drive automation and reproducibility.
Despite its value in cell characterization and quality assurance, flow cytometric testing can be particularly slow due to meticulous sample preparation. The Beckman Coulter Life Sciences CellMek Sample Preparation System reduces manual sample preparation steps by over 75% through full automation of preparation steps. In addition, it grants users the flexibility to customize the workflow steps and parameters. Similarly, Beckman Coulter Life Sciences AQUIOS CL Flow Cytometer combines automated sample preparation and quality control checks in a single system. Thus, a significant acceleration can be observed, with a reduction in cell line enumeration time by more than 40%. Ultimately, CAR-T flow cytometry protocols can be standardized through load-and-go platforms, while automation of sample preparation increases walkaway time and workflow efficiency.
CAR T-cell interaction with the target cells can be visualized through live cell imaging to ensure functionality and safety. A highly automated microscope, such as Leica Microsystems Mica Microhub, can generate image data under thoroughly controlled environmental conditions. By uniting sample protection, incubation, and imaging in one platform, it allows simultaneous multi-label image acquisition while tracking temperature and pH in real-time. Thus, Mica can eliminate hands-on monitoring needs and produces 4x more data with biologically relevant insight into CAR-T cell functionality.
Overall, the Life Sciences companies of Danaher address bottlenecks and improve the accuracy of CAR-T therapeutic development through highly automated flow cytometry and live-cell imaging instruments. Get in touch with experts at Danaher Life Sciences today to get started on streamlining your CAR-T development workflows.
References
1. frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2023.1188049/full