A team of cancer researchers, led by the University of Houston, has identified a new type of T cells that could enhance the results of T-cell therapies for patients. T cell-based immunotherapy is highly effective in combating and often eradicating cancer. This approach stimulates the patient’s immune system and modifies their T cells to identify, target, and destroy cancer cells. As a result, the body’s own T cells become active warriors against cancer.The use of drugs in cancer treatment has been revolutionized by T-cell immunotherapy, but there is still a lot that we don’t understand about it. Unfortunately, some patients do not respond well to these therapies, so it is important to gain a better understanding of engineered T cells in order to improve clinical responses.
A study, supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health, is reported in Nature Cancer by the laboratory of Navin Varadarajan, M.D. Anderson Professor in the William A. Brookshire Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. The study utilizes the patented TIMING (Timelapse Imaging Microscopy in Nanowell Grids) approach.Visual AI is used to analyze cell behavior, movement, and their ability to eliminate other cells. According to a recent study published in Nature Cancer, a specific type of T cells known as CD8-fit T cells have been found to exhibit high motility and the ability to serially kill cells, especially in patients who have had a positive clinical response. The study was conducted by a team from the University of Houston, in collaboration with researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Kite Pharma, Texas Children’s Hospital, Baylor College of Medicine, and CellChorus. The discovery of CD8-fit cells was made possible through the use of visual AI technology.The group utilized TIMING to monitor the interactions between individual T cells and tumor cells across a large number of cells and combined the findings with data from single-cell RNA sequencing.
“Chimeric antigen receptors (CAR) T cells used for treating B cell malignancies can identify T-cell subsets with superior clinical activity. By analyzing infusion products from patients with large B cell lymphoma, we merged functional profiling using TIMING with subcellular profiling and scRNA-seq to recognize a signature of multifunctional CD8 T cells (CD8-fit),” stated Rezvan. “We analyzed these cells using single-cell RNA sequencing to identify the CD8-fit mo rnrnThe researchers discovered a molecular signature that has the potential to predict long-lasting patient outcomes with T-cell therapies. They confirmed their results using separate sets of data. It was also found that the CD8-fit signature is present in T cells that are already manufactured, remains in patients over time after infusion, and is particularly linked to positive long-term clinical responses. The researchers believe that these T cells could potentially provide clinical benefits in other types of tumors. The team credits graduate students Ali Rezvan and Melisa Montalvo for their outstanding work, as well as post-doctoral researchers Melisa Martinez-Paniagua and Irfan Bandey.among others,” Varadarajan stated.
CellChorus, a company that originated from Varadarajan’s Single Cell Lab at UH, is working on developing the AI-powered TIMING platform. The organization recently revealed that it has secured a $2.5 million Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health to enhance TIMING for cell therapy applications.
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