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Analytical Chemistry

Training Immune Cells

Researchers trap T cells in emulsion droplets in hopes of reprogramming them to attack new disease targets

by Journal News and Community
March 18, 2013 | A version of this story appeared in Volume 91, Issue 11

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Credit: J. Am. Chem. Soc.
T cells (orange) become trapped inside water-in-oil emulsion droplets formed by a polymer surfactant (green and blue). On the inner surface of the droplets, the cells adhere to gold nanoparticles (yellow dots) decorated with an antigen (red bars).
Schematic of surfactant bubbles used to trap T cells and train them to attack tumor cells.
Credit: J. Am. Chem. Soc.
T cells (orange) become trapped inside water-in-oil emulsion droplets formed by a polymer surfactant (green and blue). On the inner surface of the droplets, the cells adhere to gold nanoparticles (yellow dots) decorated with an antigen (red bars).
TRAPPED!
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Credit: J. Am. Chem. Soc.
These microscope images show T cells (arrows) adhering to the inner surfaces of water-in-oil emulsion droplets.
Microscope images show T cells (arrows) adhering to the inner surfaces of water-in-oil droplets.
Credit: J. Am. Chem. Soc.
These microscope images show T cells (arrows) adhering to the inner surfaces of water-in-oil emulsion droplets.

Biologists would like to train a patient’s own immune system to treat diseases such as cancer. German researchers have reported a new step in that direction with a method that traps immune system T cells inside microscopic emulsion droplets and then exposes the cells to chemical signals that could teach them to coordinate attacks on disease targets (J. Am. Chem. Soc., DOI: 10.1021/ja311588c). Previous methods for training cells relied on two-dimensional surfaces, but the new approach mimics the three-dimensional environment inside the body in which T cells learn about possible threats. A team led by Joachim P. Spatz of the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems created an artificial 3-D environment by mixing two streams of liquid in a microfluidic system: a fluorinated polymer surfactant linked to gold nanoparticles dissolved in oil and an aqueous mixture of T cells. When the streams meet, water-in-oil droplets form with the nanoparticles on the water-facing surface and T cells enclosed inside. When the researchers decorated the gold particles with protein fragments known to interact with T cells, the cells latched on as if they were interacting with other immune cells. In the future, a doctor could isolate a cancer patient’s T cells, expose the cells to antigens specific to the cancer, and then transplant the cells back to direct the immune system to attack a tumor.

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