Microfluidic Chips: Emerging Technologies for Adoptive Cell Immunotherapy

Adoptive cell therapy (ACT) is a personalized therapy that has shown great success in treating hematologic malignancies in clinic, and has also demonstrated potential applications for solid tumors. The process of ACT involves multiple steps, including the separation of desired cells from patient tissues, cell engineering by virus vector systems, and infusion back into patients after strict tests to guarantee the quality and safety of the products. ACT is an innovative medicine in development; however, the multi-step method is time-consuming and costly, and the preparation of the targeted adoptive cells remains a challenge. Microfluidic chips are a novel platform with the advantages of manipulating fluid in micro/nano scales, and have been developed for various biological research applications as well as ACT. The use of microfluidics to isolate, screen, and incubate cells in vitro has the advantages of high throughput, low cell damage, and fast amplification rates, which can greatly simplify ACT preparation steps and reduce costs. Moreover, the customizable microfluidic chips fit the personalized demands of ACT. In this mini-review, we describe the advantages and applications of microfluidic chips for cell sorting, cell screening, and cell culture in ACT compared to other existing methods. Finally, we discuss the challenges and potential outcomes of future microfluidics-related work in ACT.