HOUSTON– Scientists from CellChorus Inc., the leader in applying artificial intelligence to visually evaluate how thousands of individual cells perform over time, today announced the publication of a manuscript in BioTechniques demonstrating that cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) targeting a conserved SARS-CoV-2 spike epitope are efficient serial killers.
Commercial vaccines seek sterilizing immunity by generating neutralizing antibodies that can protect against viruses like SARS-CoV-2. The immunity, however, wanes over time. The ability of CTLs to efficiently kill target cells presenting conserved epitopes illustrates the power of T-cell mediated immunity and emphasizes the need to study cellular immune responses in the context of infection and vaccines.
The researchers applied Time-lapse Imaging Microscopy in Nanowell Grids (TIMING™) to simultaneously evaluate thousands of individual interactions between T cells and target cells bearing virally derived peptides. The artificial intelligence-powered TIMING™ platform revealed individual T cells that are capable of polyfunctionality based on killing, serial killing, and secretion of the cytokine interferon gamma (IFNγ). The manuscript is based on research completed by scientists at CellChorus and the University of Houston.
“The development and performance of COVID vaccines has been a great achievement,” said Daniel Meyer, CEO of CellChorus. “Unfortunately, while studying antibody response from vaccines and other immunity is relatively straightforward, evaluating T-cell mediated cellular immune responses has historically been much more challenging. These results demonstrate how dynamic single-cell analysis is a valuable approach for characterizing the complexity of the immune response.”
