Population analysis and immune cell killing
o2h offers cancer immunotherapy drug discovery research services, which range from biochemical and cell-based assays for the phenotypic screening of novel immune therapeutics and the in vitro determination of the molecular mechanism of action of new anti-cancer immune modulators.
At o2h, we have developed a repository of healthy human donor derived peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) which serve as starting material for various downstream immuno-oncology assays. These cells have been characterized by flow cytometry based immunophenotyping for multiple immune cell subsets using our in-house, state of the art flow cytometer CytoFLEX S from Beckman Coulter, which comes equipped with 4 lasers and allows detection up to 15 channels.
- o2h scientists can utilize flow cytometry-based analysis to perform immune phenotyping of whole blood-derived PBMCs and quantify the expression of surface receptors and intracellular proteins.
- Co-culture systems, such as PBMCs, T cells, and NK cells, can be characterized by their paracrine signalling, activation, proliferation, and differentiation using fluorochrome-conjugated antibodies against cell-surface receptors.
- Therapeutic small molecules and antibodies can also be screened for their cytotoxic potential against cancer cell lines using Annexin V/7-AAD dyes to quantify the percentage of cellular apoptosis and necrosis
Figure 1. Human PBMCs stained with a T cell antibody panel. The gating strategy involved first identifying the lymphocyte population by forward scatter (FSC) and side scatter (SSC). Live T cells (CD3+) were gated and then the two main types of T cells were defined by CD4+ (T helper cells) and CD8+ (cytotoxic T cells).
To know more about our immuno-oncology drug discovery services or to request our brochure, please reach out to us at discovery@o2h.com.