T Cell Activation/Exhaustion Assays

T cell activation and exhaustion are biological events in the immune system. Flow cytometry has advanced rapidly allowing us to be able to define a detailed characterization of T cells in both states. T cell activation assays are designed to identify activation markers (such as CD69, CD71, CD25), cytokines, and functional features. In T Cell Exhaustion assays, T cells that had chronic antigen exposure to virus or cancer are identifiable. These T cells display immunoregulatory markers (such as TIM-4, LAG-3, PD-1, CTLA-4), which are also called immune checkpoints, and have decreased cytokine production. These immune checkpoints bind to tumor cells or antigen presenting cells but are inactive or dysfunctional.

Investigators are now testing drugs that serve as immune checkpoint inhibitors, that reverse the exhaustion of T cells, making these T cells active and functional, in order to attack tumor cells. T cell activation and cell exhaustion assays by flow cytometry help us to monitor drugs that serve like check point inhibitors or blockade, which are proved to clinically beneficial to patients with advanced cancer.

At FlowMetric, we have high dimensional flow cytometry instrumentation and validated assays ready to interrogate T cell activation and cell exhaustion to aid in your research studies as well as in clinical trials.