Soler, MariaLi, XiaokangJohn-Herpin, AurelianSchmidt, JulienCoukos, GeorgeAltug, Hatice2018-12-132018-12-132018-12-132018-11-0110.1021/acssensors.8b00523https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/152259WOS:000451495700012The screening and analysis of T cells functional avidity for specific tumor-associated antigens is crucial for the development of personalized immunotherapies against cancer. The affinity and kinetics of a T cell receptor (TCR) binding to the peptide-major histocompatibility complex (pMHC), expressed on tumor or antigen-presenting cells, have shown major implications in T cell activation and effector functions. We introduce an innovative methodology for the two-dimensional affinity analysis of TCR-pMHC in a label-free configuration by employing a multiparametric Surface Plasmon Resonance biosensor (MP-SPR) functionalized with artificial cell membranes. The biomimetic scaffold created with planar lipid bilayers is able to efficiently capture the specific and intact tumor-specific T cells and monitor the formation of the immunological synapse in situ. We have achieved excellent limits of detection for in-flow cell capturing, up to 2 magnitude below the current state-of-the-art for plasmonic sensing. We demonstrate the accuracy and selectivity of our sensor for the analysis of CD8(+) T cells bioengineered with TCR of incremental affinities specific for the HLA-A0201/NY-ESO-I157-165 pMHC complex. The study confirmed the significance of providing a biomimetic microenvironment, compared to the traditional molecular analysis, and showed fine agreement with previous results employing flow cytometry. Our methodology is reliable and versatile; thus, it can be applied to more sophisticated photonic and nanoplasmonic technologies for the screening of multiple cell types and boost the development of novel treatments for cancer.Chemistry, MultidisciplinaryChemistry, AnalyticalNanoscience & NanotechnologyChemistryScience & Technology - Other Topicsartificial cell membranelipid bilayerimmunotherapysurface plasmon resonancetcr affinity analysisreal-time analysiscell captureself-assembled monolayerssupported lipid-bilayerspeptide interactionsligand recognitionbinding-kineticsresonancetcrmembranesbiosensorsurfacestext::journal::journal article::research article