title: Killer artificial antigen presenting cells (KaAPC) for efficient in vitro depletion of human antigen-specific T cells.
abstract: Current treatment of T cell mediated autoimmune diseases relies mostly on strategies of global immunosuppression, which, in the long term, is accompanied by adverse side effects such as a reduced ability to control infections or malignancies. Therefore, new approaches need to be developed that target only the disease mediating cells and leave the remaining immune system intact. Over the past decade a variety of cell based immunotherapy strategies to modulate T cell mediated immune responses have been developed. Most of these approaches rely on tolerance-inducing antigen presenting cells (APC). However, in addition to being technically difficult and cumbersome, such cell-based approaches are highly sensitive to cytotoxic T cell responses, which limits their therapeutic capacity. Here we present a protocol for the generation of non-cellular killer artificial antigen presenting cells (KaAPC), which allows for the depletion of pathologic T cells while leaving the remaining immune system untouched and functional. KaAPC is an alternative solution to cellular immunotherapy which has potential for treating autoimmune diseases and allograft rejections by regulating undesirable T cell responses in an antigen specific fashion.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Institute of Cell Engineering, Johns Hopkins University.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schütz
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine I, University of Regensburg; Department of Rheumatology, Asklepios Medical Center.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fleck
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Institute of Cell Engineering, Johns Hopkins University.
authors.forename: Jonathan P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Schneck
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Institute of Cell Engineering, Johns Hopkins University; moelke1@jhmi.edu.
authors.forename: Mathias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Oelke
mesh_terms: D000938:Antigen-Presenting Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology*; D001327:Autoimmune Diseases / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D018984:Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D016219:Immunotherapy, Adoptive / Q000379:methods*; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology* / Q000473:pathology*
chemical_list: D018984:Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte