Erschienen in:
01.02.2010 | Review
Multimer technologies for detection and adoptive transfer of antigen-specific T cells
verfasst von:
Rosaely Casalegno-Garduño, Anita Schmitt, Junxia Yao, Xinchao Wang, Xun Xu, Mathias Freund, Michael Schmitt
Erschienen in:
Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy
|
Ausgabe 2/2010
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Abstract
Identification and purification of antigen-specific T cells without altering their functional status are of high scientific and clinical interest. Staining with major histocompatibility complex (MHC)-peptide multimers constitutes a very powerful method to study antigen-specific T-cell subpopulations, allowing their direct visualization and quantification. MHC-peptide multimers, such as dimers, tetramers, pentamers, streptamers, dextramers and octamers have been used to evaluate the frequency of CD8+ T cells, specific for tumor/leukemia-associated antigens as well as for viral antigens, e.g., CMVpp65 and EBV-EBNA. Moreover, MHC-peptide multimers have been used for rapid and efficient ex vivo isolation and expansion of T cells. A recent development in the field of MHC-peptide multimers led to the purification of CD8+ T cells specific for leukemia antigens. This might help to select leukemia-specific donor lymphocyte infusions (DLIs), thus allowing dissection of the noxious graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) from beneficial anti-viral and even anti-leukemic effects. This review covers different types of MHC-peptide multimers and their applications, as well as the impact that multimers might have on further development of DLIs.