High-Throughput Screening of Functional Neo-Antigens and Their Specific T-Cell Receptors via the Jurkat Reporter System Combined with Droplet Microfluidics

Anal Chem. 2023 Jun 27;95(25):9697-9705. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.3c01754. Epub 2023 Jun 10.

Abstract

T-cell receptor (TCR)-engineered T cells can precisely recognize a broad repertoire of targets derived from both intracellular and surface proteins of tumor cells. TCR-T adoptive cell therapy has shown safety and promising efficacy in solid tumor immunotherapy. However, antigen-specific functional TCR screening is time-consuming and expensive, which limits its application clinically. Here, we developed a novel integrated antigen-TCR screening platform based on droplet microfluidic technology, enabling high-throughput peptide-major histocompatibility complex (pMHC)-to-TCR paired screening with a high sensitivity and low background signal. We introduced DNA barcoding technology to label peptide antigen candidate-loaded antigen-presenting cells and Jurkat reporter cells to check the specificity of pMHC-TCR candidates. Coupled with the next-generation sequencing pipeline, interpretation of the DNA barcodes and the gene expression level of the Jurkat T-cell activation pathway provided a clear peptide-MHC-TCR recognition relationship. Our proof-of-principle study demonstrates that the platform could achieve pMHC-TCR paired high-throughput screening, which is expected to be used in the cross-reactivity and off-target high-throughput paired testing of candidate pMHC-TCRs in clinical applications.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Antigens
  • High-Throughput Screening Assays*
  • Humans
  • Microfluidics*
  • Peptides / metabolism
  • Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell / genetics
  • Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell / metabolism

Substances

  • Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell
  • Antigens
  • Peptides