Boosting T Cell Health and Viability With Better Separation

Updated on Dec 10, 2024 Share

Maintaining the health and viability of immune cells in CAR T cell therapy and adoptive cell transfer is critical. These cells must endure isolation and expansion processes without losing their functionality. Even slight inefficiencies can compromise cell integrity and cell health, resulting in diminished therapeutic outcomes.

Akadeum’s Alerion™ Microbubble Cell Separation System solves these challenges by offering a gentle, scalable method for T cell separation, ensuring better health and viability. Let’s explore the factors that affect T cell health in immunotherapy and how Akadeum’s technology optimizes these critical processes.

Key Factors for Improved Cell Health in T Cell Isolation

Maintaining improved cell health during T cell isolation is essential for producing viable, functional cells that can be used in CAR T cell therapy and adoptive cell transfer therapies. The isolation process can be harsh on cells, especially when traditional methods rely on mechanical or chemical stressors that compromise cell integrity. Several key factors must be considered to ensure T cells remain healthy and viable.

Ways to improve cell health during isolation include:

• Gentle handling. Harsh physical separation methods can damage cells. A technique that minimizes handling stress helps preserve their integrity.
• Faster processing times. Prolonged handling in separation processes can reduce cell viability. Efficient methods minimize exposure to harsh conditions and handling times.
• Minimal chemical exposure. Traditional separation techniques often use chemicals that compromise cell health. Reducing chemical exposure is crucial.
• Avoiding activation stress. Positive selection methods may inadvertently activate T cells, causing premature exhaustion and impairing their therapeutic use.

Akadeum’s cell separation techniques address these challenges using a buoyancy-based, gentle approach. By isolating target cells without harsh forces or chemicals, Akadeum ensures that T cells remain intact and healthy, setting the stage for a successful expansion and T cell engineering process.

Why Improved Cell Viability Is Critical in T Cell Expansion

Once isolated, maintaining improved cell viability throughout the expansion process is equally important. T cells must be functional and robust to be effective in therapies like adoptive cell transfer and CAR T cell therapy.

If the initial cell population is damaged or stressed during isolation, cells’ ability to expand and proliferate during the next phase is compromised.

By ensuring high T cell viability optimization from the outset, Akadeum’s approach supports more successful expansion outcomes. Healthy, non-stressed cells divide more efficiently, yielding the large numbers of functional T cells required for effective cell engineering and immunotherapies.

Together, these factors ensure that Akadeum’s system enhances both the isolation and expansion phases, leading to improved therapeutic success.

The Drawbacks of Positive Selection in T Cell Isolation

Methods for isolating T cells are generally categorized into positive and negative selection techniques. Until now, positive selection—which binds directly to the cells of interest—has been the dominant approach because scalable negative selection solutions did not exist. However, positive selection has significant drawbacks, particularly in terms of viability and cell health in immunotherapy.

Positive selection works by tagging the cells of interest, such as T cells, with magnetic beads or antibodies that directly bind to their surface markers. Although effective at isolating specific cell populations, this method can:

1. Alter cell surface markers. Positive selection can disrupt natural cell surface markers, which may impact T cell functionality, especially in sensitive therapeutic applications like CAR T cell therapy and adoptive cell transfer.
2. Induce activation. The process of tagging cells can inadvertently activate T cells, which may lead to premature exhaustion and reduce their efficacy in clinical settings.
3. Damage cell membranes. Direct attachment of beads or antibodies to the cell surface can physically damage cells, negatively affecting their integrity and reducing viability.

These risks make positive selection less ideal for applications that require the highest level of immune cell integrity and functionality, particularly in cell therapy.

Akadeum’s Innovation in Scaling Up Negative Selection for Cell Health

To address the limitations of positive selection, Akadeum has developed an advanced negative selection approach that isolates T cells more gently and effectively, preserving their health and viability. Negative selection works by removing unwanted cells, leaving the T cells untouched. This method eliminates the need for direct binding to the cells of interest, avoiding the risks associated with traditional positive selection.

By scaling up negative selection for therapeutic applications, Akadeum’s Alerion™ Microbubble Cell Separation System offers several key advantages:

1. Strategic isolation. Negative selection leaves T cells unaltered and intact, preserving their natural state and functionality for use in adoptive cell transfer or preparing for T cell transduction in CAR T therapy.
2. Lower activation risk. Without direct binding, accidental activation or stress is less likely. Less direct binding ensures T cells remain viable and ready for therapeutic use.
3. Higher viability for expansion. The healthier the starting population of T cells is, the more successful the expansion process will be, leading to more effective treatments.

Together, these benefits make Akadeum’s system a critical tool for researchers and clinicians focused on achieving the best possible outcomes in cell-based therapies.

Akadeum’s T Cell Kits: Optimizing Viability for Clinical Applications

Akadeum’s cell therapy kits leverage this innovative negative selection approach to improve T cell viability across clinical and research settings. By ensuring that cells remain untouched during isolation, these kits provide:

• Scalability for therapeutic use. Akadeum’s T cell kits are the first to scale negative cell selection for high-volume applications, including cell transfer therapies.
• Consistent results. Akadeum’s streamlined, reliable microbubble-based cell isolation process delivers repeatable outcomes, essential for clinical success.
• Better cell viability for expansion. Starting with healthier, non-stressed cells allows for more efficient T cell expansion methods and higher yields of functional T cells.

These features ensure that Akadeum’s T cell kits offer a reliable, scalable solution for maintaining cell health in even the most demanding clinical applications.

Ensuring Cell Health for Successful Therapies

Maintaining improved cell health and viability is essential to the success of therapies like CAR T cell and adoptive cell transfer. Akadeum’s advanced negative selection approach is designed to preserve T cell integrity and cell health throughout both isolation and expansion, directly enhancing therapeutic outcomes.

For researchers and clinicians looking to improve the performance of their cell therapies, Akadeum’s Alerion™ Microbubble Cell Separation System and T cell kits provide a reliable, scalable solution for healthier, more viable T cells.

Let’s Get Started

Ready to improve your T cell isolation and expansion process with Akadeum’s groundbreaking negative selection technology? Visit our T cell kits page to learn how Akadeum can support your research and clinical needs. Explore the full potential of our Alerion™ Microbubble Cell Separation System and discover how we can help you achieve better cell health, viability, and therapeutic outcomes.

For more insights into optimizing cell health for immunotherapy and cell therapy, check out our Resources section for the latest scientific advancements and product updates.