Newsletter December: Investigating T cell interactions with AI image analysis

Welcome to the December edition of the AI for Live Cell Insights Newsletter, bringing you the latest live cell analyses powering drug discovery and cosmetics development. Each month, we will explore a new application of AI-based cellular analysis for label-free live cell imaging, with publication highlights and news from Nanolive. This month, we are highlighting the application of AI for in vitro immuno-oncology research, as well as recent publications in the fields of nanomaterials and oncology.

Label-free cell classification for immuno-oncology

Thanks to their distinct morphological and refractive index properties, effector cells and adherent target cells can be distinguished by eye when using holotomographic microscopy. By training a machine learning algorithm  to detect these differences, scientists at Nanolive built a unique automated analysis solution, the LIVE T Cell Assay, that can detect and classify both effector and adherent target cells (such as cancer cells) without the need for harmful labels.

This imaging and analysis technique was used by researchers at Aix Marseille University to uncover the effects of their monoclonal anti-BTN2A1 agonist anti-cancer antibody candidate on γδ T cells, and the results were recently published in Cancer Immunology Research in the paper “Targeting BTN2A1 Enhances Vγ9Vδ2 T-Cell Effector Functions and Triggers Tumor Cell Pyroptosis”.

Quantifying antibody effects

Authors imaged the effect of their antibody on Ishikawa (endometrial adenocarcinoma) and SUP-T1 (lymphoma) cells in co-culture with Vγ9Vδ2 T cells, using the LIVE T Cell Assay to classify the cells as either target cells, or T cells, label-free. The antibody’s ability to improve T cell-target cell interactions was measured using 5 variables:

• Ratio of T cells in contact with target cells
• Target cell area covered by T cells (%)
• Average minimal distance between T cells and target cells (µm)
• T cell velocity (µm/s)
• Target cell death

“Combined with advanced computer vision, holotomography provides us with unique quantitative information on the dynamic interactions between effector and target cells. Specifically, we were able to show that our antibody promoted a long-lasting anti-tumor response of γδT cells and illustrated its effect on the establishment and stabilization of the effector-target cell interaction.”
Author Caroline Imbert, Researcher at the Cancer Research Centre of Marseille.

You can read the full paper “Targeting BTN2A1 Enhances Vγ9Vδ2 T-Cell Effector Functions and Triggers Tumor Cell Pyroptosis” here, or contact the authors for a PDF copy mathieu.frechin@nanolive.ch

A digital assay for immuno-oncology

Explore T cell dynamics in more detail and see how the high-content analysis capabilities of Nanolive’s LIVE T Cell Assay transform research outcomes with a bispecific antibody screening case study. In this webinar, we present the following use-cases of our immuno-oncology and cytotoxicity assays from industry-leading biopharma companies to test toxicity, selectivity, uptake and expression of different targeted therapies.

Immunotherapy:
     Bispecific antibody screening in a T cell-target cell co-culture (Lightchain Bioscience)

Drug selectivity and cytotoxicity:
     mRNA expression and cytotoxicity (TrON)
     Drug selectivity in co-cultures: senolytics (dsm-firmenich)
     Measuring particle uptake (bit.bio)

Watch the webinar “High content in vitro imaging for translational success: Targeted therapies” and learn more about Nanolive’s LIVE T Cell Assay here.

Case study: Bispecific antibody treatment accelerates killing by T cells

Latest publication highlights with Nanolive imaging:

• Nanomaterials: Jeena, M. T. et al. (2024) ‘Chaperone-Derived Copper(I)-Binding Peptide Nanofibers Disrupt Copper Homeostasis in Cancer Cells’, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202412477 
• Electrochemotherapy: Rembiałkowska, N. et al. (2024) ‘Enhancing lung cancer growth inhibition with calcium ions: Role of mid- and high-frequency electric field pulses’ Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopha.2024.117691 
• Metabolic stress: Wang, J. et al. (2024) ‘Non- lethal sonodynamic therapy inhibits high glucose and palmitate-induced macrophage inflammasome activation through mtROS- DRP1- mitophagy pathway’ FASEB Journal https://doi.org/10.1096/fj.202402008R
• Nanomaterials: Marsik, D., et al. (2024) ‘Preparation and Biological Activity of Lignin–Silver Hybrid Nanoparticles’ ACS Omega https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.4c08117 
• Macropinocytosis: Lim, R. et al. (2024) ‘CARMIL1-AA selectively inhibits macropinocytosis while sparing autophagy’ Molecular Biology of the Cell https://doi.org/10.1091/mbc.E24-09-0434 
• Viral endocytosis: Wang, R., et al (2024) ‘An Auger electron-loaded theranostic biosensor triggered by the ACE2-mediated virus/host endocytosis’ Talanta https://doi.org/10.1016/j.talanta.2024.127288 
• Mitochondria: Nayak, D. et al (2024) ‘Trehalose extricates impaired mitochondrial and autophagy dysregulation in patient iPSC-derived macular corneal dystrophy disease model’ Stem Cell Therapy and Research https://doi.org/10.1186/s13287-024-04016-4 

Find over 300 publications featuring Nanolive imaging here.

A ground-breaking tool for label-free mitochondrial analysis

Nanolive are preparing to launch a new label-free technology for automated, label-free mitochondrial analysis, and you can receive early updates by signing up here.

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