LAUSR

Immune checkpoint molecules are important regulators of immune activation. This regulation is critical to maintaining immune homeostasis, and is driven by a complex interplay of both co-stimulatory and inhibitory signals. These checkpoints are key to preventing autoimmunity in healthy individuals; however, cancer cells often exploit this system by modulating the expression of these molecules in order to suppress anti-tumor responses during host immuno-editing. The ability to accurately quantify expression levels of checkpoint molecules is critical to ongoing biomedical research efforts exploring potential therapeutic interventions to overcome tumor-mediated immune-evasion. To further aid these ongoing research efforts, we have developed a new bead-based multiplex assay panel specifically designed to quantify several human oncology-related immune checkpoint biomarkers including sCD25 (IL-2Ra), GITR, 4-1BB, sCD27, B7.2 (CD86), free active TGF-β1, CTLA-4, PD-L1, PD-L2, PD-1, TIM-3, LAG-3, Galectin-9. The panel utilizes fluorescence-encoded microsphere technology and is designed for use on commonly available flow cytometers. The panel has been extensively validated for specificity, dilution linearity, cross-reactivity, and inter- and intra-assay precision. This multiplex panel is a robust tool for measuring the concentrations of several immune checkpoint mediators in human serum, plasma, and cell culture supernatant samples, and offers greater efficiency and broader dynamic ranges compared to conventional ELISA-based quantification methods. Citation Format: Jason Lehmann, Priyanka Rughwani, Amy Zhao, Weiping Jiang, Shaoquan Ji, Binggang Sun. Novel bead-based multiplex assay for the quantification of human immune checkpoint biomarkers [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 4117.