News Releases & Research Results Development of engineered immune cells sensing pathogenic virus with high sensitivity to prevent infection
News Releases & Research Results
Outline
The results of collaborative research and development led by Professor Akihide Ryo and Assistant Professor Satoko Matsunaga of Department of Microbiology, Yokohama City University School of Medicine; Department of Immunology, Yokohama City University School of Medicine; National Institute of Infectious Diseases; and National Center for Global health and Medicine.
The key results of R&D are as follows:
- A customization of extracellular and intracellular portions of the “synNotch receptor,” a membrane protein developed for immunological therapy for cancer, led to the successful development of engineered immune cells sensing Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) surface antigen prior to enhancement of intracellular transcription.
- It was confirmed at the cellular level that activated engineered immune cells can control HBV transmission through the secretion of a neutralizing antibody—an antibody with the capacity to inhibit viral infection—and interferon.
- The results of R&D suggested that engineered immune cells with synNotch receptor may be an important tool for development of novel treatment for intractable infectious diseases.
This R&D project was conducted with the support of Research Program on Hepatitis by AMED.
The results of R&D were published in iScience, a multidisciplinary open access journal published by Cell Press, on February 27.
Article
Matsunaga S, et al. Engineering cellular biosensors with customizable antiviral responses targeting hepatitis B virus iScience
DOI:10.1016/j.isci.2020.100867
02/27/20
Last updated 02/27/20