Detection of cancer specific T cells on a chip

Cancer-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes play important roles in cancer immunity. Previously we developed microwell-array chips that have an array of about 250,000 microwells in which only single lymphocytes can be accommodated. In this study, we showed that we could detect antigen-specific T lymphocytes by culturing single lymphocytes in each microwell, stimulating them with antigenic peptides, and detecting their cytokine-secretion on the chip. By retrieving the detected single T lymphocytes, we could amplify TCRalpha/beta cDNAs, insert them in a retrovirus vector with homologous recombination, and examine their antigen-specificity by expressing them on a TCR-deficient T cell line. The whole process can be accomplished within 10 days. The system may greatly contribute to the cancer immunotherapy in the future.