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CyTOF Measurement of Immunocompetence Across Major Immune Cell Types
Priyanka B Subrahmanyam1, Holden T Maecker2
1Post-doctoral Research Fellow, Immunity, Transplantation and Infection, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California.
Insights
Measuring immune competence using mass cytometry (CyTOF) can identify patients who will benefit from cancer immunotherapy. This approach assesses immune cell function to predict treatment outcomes and potentially serve as a prognostic tool.
Area of Science:
- Immunology
- Biotechnology
- Oncology
Background:
- The immune system plays a crucial role in various diseases, notably in cancer immunotherapy, where patient response varies significantly.
- Recent research highlights the heterogeneity of the human immune system, yet immune competence is not routinely assessed in clinical practice.
- There is a lack of consensus assays for evaluating healthy immune function.
Purpose of the Study:
- To introduce the concepts and provide a protocol for a mass cytometry (CyTOF)-based assay to assess immunocompetence.
- To identify potential predictive biomarkers for immunotherapy outcomes.
- To explore the utility of CyTOF for evaluating immune cell subsets and their functions.
Main Methods:
- Utilizing mass cytometry (CyTOF) to simultaneously detect approximately 40 markers on immune cells.
- Identifying diverse immune cell subsets based on marker expression.
- Assessing immune cell function through the expression of cytokines, cytotoxicity, and activation markers.
Main Results:
- The developed CyTOF assay can comprehensively assess immune cell populations and their functional states.
- The protocol facilitates the identification of potential biomarkers that may predict immunotherapy response.
- The study lays the groundwork for using CyTOF to measure 'immunocompetence'.
Conclusions:
- Mass cytometry (CyTOF) offers a powerful tool for assessing immune competence and understanding immune system heterogeneity.
- This approach can aid in the personalized implementation of immunotherapies by predicting patient outcomes.
- The assay has the potential to be used as a prognostic tool in both specific disease settings and for healthy individuals.
Abstract:
The central role of the immune system is becoming appreciated in a wide variety of diseases. Cancer immunotherapy is one area that has yielded much recent success, although not all patients benefit equally. At the same time, recent studies have highlighted the heterogeneity of the human immune system. Despite this heterogeneity, we do not routinely measure immune competence in clinical practice, and there are no consensus assays of healthy immune function. Using mass cytometry (CyTOF), we can simultaneously detect ∼40 markers to identify various cell subsets and determine their function by the expression of cytokines, cytotoxicity, and activation markers. This can help assess 'immunocompetence' and facilitate better implementation of immunotherapies, both in specific disease settings and perhaps eventually as a prognostic tool in healthy subjects. Here we introduce the concepts behind this assay and provide a protocol that we have successfully implemented to identify possible predictive biomarkers of immunotherapy outcome. © 2017 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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