γδ TCR-Ligand Reaction Analysis Services

γδ T Cell: A Group of Unconventional Guards

It is well known that T cells play an important role in human immunity, both initiate immunity and acquired immunity, but the knowledge about the γδ T cells and their immune mechanisms are not that sufficient. In the human immune system, T lymphocytes can be divided into two subgroups, αβ T cells and γδ T cells, based on the expressed receptor on the cell surface, among which γδ T cells are a minor subset characterized by a distinctive γδ T-cell receptor (TCR). γδ-TCR, consisting of a γ chain and δ chain and forming a complex with CD3 subunits, mediates signal transduction into the cell by recognizing a variety of ligands and antigens.

Unlike αβ T cells that widely distributed in the peripheral blood, lymph nodes, and tissues, γδ T cells limitedly reside in epithelial, and mucosal tissues, where they recognize and react with pathogens and infectious cells, serving as a defender protect humans from various infections. More importantly, numerous researches indicate that γδ T cells exhibit broad and favorable cytotoxic activity against human tumors, which is considered to be a promising and potent candidate for tumor immunotherapy development.

γδ TCR-Ligand Reaction Analysis

Up to now, a wide range of ligands has been identified that a wide range of ligands that stimulates γδ T cells in TCR dependent and major histocompatibility complex (MHC) independent manners has been identified. Despite this remarkable progress has been achieved, new attempts have always been making to discover and identify more possible γδ TCR ligands to elucidate the functional mechanisms of γδ T cells.

Generally, γδ TCR-ligand reaction analysis is challenging since it is a time-consuming, expensive, and high-risk process. With the development of biological techniques, a series of methods have been developed to identify and analyze the γδ TCR-ligand reaction, among which the commonly used are presented as follows.

Fig.1 Various approaches for the identification of candidate ligands for the γδ TCR. (Willcox, 2019)

• Transfecting specific γδ TCR genes into T cell clones to screen TCR-dependent cellular reactivity to a panel of target cell lines, by which the γδ TCR ligands, such as endothelial protein C receptor and MHC class I have been identified;
• Detecting γδ TCR-ligand interactions by staining γδ T cells with multimerized ligands using CD1 antigen-presenting molecules and phycoerythrin;
• Genetic mapping and homology-based method using genetically engineered mice are used to localize or trace γδ T cell subsets and γδ TCR ligand candidates.

Besides, other analysis methods using surface plasmon resonance (SPR), isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC), X-ray crystallography, etc., analytical techniques to directly detect γδ TCR-ligand interactions also have been explored to identify the γδ TCR ligands.

Let’s Work Together to Fulfil Your Project Goals

Creative Biolabs has many years of technical research and development experience in the field of development of novel immunotherapeutics. Owing to the advanced technical equipment and perfect technology platform, we provide comprehensive γδ TCR ligand interaction analysis services based on the advantages of:

• An experienced team of technical experts
• Master the most cutting-edge science and technology
• Own the most advanced experimental equipment
• Have years of technical experience in hybridomas, DNA recombinant technology, intermolecular interaction analysis, etc.

If you are exploring the analysis method of γδ TCR-ligand reaction or other γδ TCR services, please contact us. Creative Biolabs will provide you with a full range of guidance and assistance.

Reference

1. Willcox, B.E., Willcox, C.R. γδ TCR ligands: the quest to solve a 500-million year old mystery. Nature Immunology. 2019, 20(2): 121-128.