Designed DNA Surfaces for in Vitro Modulation of Natural Killer Cells

Natural killer (NK) cells are at the junction of the innate and the adaptive immune response and play a very important role in host defense against viral infections and cancer. They have numerous cell surface receptors that activate or inhibit various intracellular signaling cascades that are then integrated to determine the functional activity of these cells. Here we present a surface-based approach that aims to tackle the largely unknown molecular mechanisms of signal integration. We use DNA microarrays containing capture oligonucleotides for the DNA-directed immobilization (DDI) of oligonucleotide-tagged αCD16 antibodies as ligands for NK cells. We demonstrate that the resulting surfaces can be gradually tuned in terms of ligand density to trigger the activation of living NK cells, as evidenced by degranulation, the release of cytokines, and intracellular Ca(2+) flux, measured at the level of single cells.