-
Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are used to treat patients in a variety of conditions such as infectious disease, cancer, and autoimmunity. Discovery of therapeutic antibodies is a laborious process, that depends on high-throughput screening of antibody candidates to determine antigen specificity. Immune repertoire analysis provides accurate, sensitive, and rapid detection of antibody sequences in panning rounds or exposured animal models, accelerating the discovery of mAbs.
-
Cancers can evolve to express ligands that suppress the activity of immune cells. Checkpoint inhibitors aim to release these “brakes” and reactivate the immune response against cancer. The FDA has approved the use of ipilimumab and nivolumab in several indications, but their use has been associated with significant side effects. This underscores the need for better biomarkers, to prevent unnecessary suffering and provide treatment options better tailored to individual patients. Immune repertoire analysis enables accurate treatment monitoring and patient stratification, and the development of personalized, “first-time-right” treatment strategies.
-
Adoptive cell transfer (ACT) in cancer involves the ex vivo expansion (and optional modification) of patient’s own immune cells to generate a large population of cells to target the tumor. Expanded tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) have been successfully applied in a variety of malignancies, such as melanoma, lung and cervical cancer. While TIL therapy generally employs unmodified cells, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy relies on the modification of periheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) with an artificial TCR, targeting a specific (cell-membrane-bound) protein. Through clonal tracking, immune repertoire analysis plays an important role in monitoring the efficacy and safety of ACT.
-
Minimal Residual Disease (MRD) quantification in multiple myeloma and B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia patients determines whether a patient has residual cancer cells remaining after treatment. This provides critical information on the extent of the therapeutic response and informs future clinical decision making. While conventional methods for MRD detection, such as flow cytometry and PCR, are capable of measuring MRD (to about 1:10,000 cells), immune repertoire sequencing provides orders of magnitude higher sensitivity at 1 in 1,000,000 cells. This significantly improves early detection and provides critical information to help avoid clinical relapse.
