Biological engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed an experimental tool
For this, researchers have developeda specialized form of lentivirus, a type of virus that scientists often use to deliver genes because it can integrate DNA fragments into host cells. These viruses have an envelope protein called VSV-G that can bind to receptors on the surface of many types of human cells, including immune cells, and infect them.
For this study, the researchers modifiedthe VSV-G protein in such a way that it cannot infect the cell on its own, but relies on an antigen of the researchers' choice. This modified version of VSV-G can only help the lentivirus enter the cell if the paired antigen binds to a human B or T cell receptor that recognizes the antigen.
“This technique allows us to understand immunity much moreit is better. So scientists will see the mechanics of complex immune recognition in various diseases and accelerate the development of more effective vaccines and immunotherapies,” said Michael Birnbaum, assistant professor of biological engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
To demonstrate the accuracy of the technique,The researchers created a pool of viruses with antigens from 100 different viruses, including influenza, cytomegalovirus, and Epstein-Barr virus. They tested these viruses against approximately 400,000 T cells and showed that the method could correctly select the antigen-T cell receptor pairs that had been previously identified.
In future research, Birnbaum hopestest thousands of antigens against populations of B and T cells. “Our ideal is to screen entire viruses or families of viruses so that we can get readings from the entire immune system in a single experiment,” he notes.
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