Emilee Knowlton: Pro5® Pentamers and ProT2® Tetramers for tracking antigen-specific T cells

Epitope discovery is a crucial element in the development of vaccine candidates and drug therapeutics.   In the Immune-oncology space, identifying neoepitopes and tumor- associated antigens provide new targets for cancer diagnostics and enable the tracking of patient responses to treatment. Whereas, monitoring T cell responses to gene therapy vectors and transgenes is important in evaluating efficacy and safety of the treatment.   ProImmune provides industry-leading tools for antigen characterization, epitope mapping and immune monitoring.  Novel epitopes can be identified by the highly sensitive ProPresent® Antigen Presentation assay, which utilizes LC/MS/MS to determine peptides that are naturally processed and presented.  Additionally, the REVEAL® HLA-peptide binding assay eliminates the need for precious patient samples and allows for the screening of multiple proteins for potential T cell epitopes in a matter of weeks. Once the epitopes have been identified, they act as important markers for tracking treatment effectiveness in clinical immune monitoring programs.  IFN-γ ELISpots serve as a robust measurement of antigen specific immune responses following patient vaccination and/or treatment, while antigen-specific CD4+ T and CD8+ T cell responses can be enumerated by the ProT2® MHC-Tetramers and Pro5®MHC-Pentamers, respectively.  In this presentation, case studies will be shared that detail how ProImmune’s integrated platform has identified novel epitopes in the immune-oncology and gene therapy field and enabled the detection and measurement of functional T cell responses against those epitopes in the clinic.