New T Cell Test Could Accelerate Patient Screening and Vaccine Development

In one of his most recent interviews, James Hindley, Ph.D. from Indoor Biotechnologies, explained how his firm is devising a new T cell test amid the pandemic.

He also explained why this particular testing is a much-needed mechanism for groups and individuals evaluating new immune responses to and developing new vaccines for COVID-19.

Since the onset of this pandemic, scientists throughout disciplines, as well as geographical situations, have joint forces in exceptional ways.

Essentially, the promptness at which diagnostic tests had gone from conceptualization to actuality was quite astonishing, as were the worldwide initiatives to try new and repurposed medicine to look for treatments for people who have the disease.

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Importance of Developing the T cell Test

According to Dr. Hindley, the present concentration for testing immunity to COVID-19 is according to the antibody assessment.

These are undoubtedly a crucial part of our memory immune response to viruses. Nonetheless, another crucial element of an individual's immune reaction to viruses is the T cell.

They provide memory immune reactions too, and may even be more delicate than antibodies. According to Hindley, the Challenge with T cells is that, unlike antibodies, measuring them is not that simple.

As such, there is a need to have a simple T cell test that could allow testing for virus-particular T cells, which can be done routinely.

Hindley also shared that the T cell test his company developed could offer quantitative outcomes that gauge the magnitude of T cell responses to COVID-19 infection of an individual.

He also said Indoor Biotechnologies can, in parallel, run similar tests for other coronaviruses and viruses like influenza.

This enables them to establish the immune status of an individual. Similar to antibodies, whether a T cell test result that's positive is protective from future contagion remains undetermined.

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A Blood Test for Lab Administration

Dr. Hindley said they initially believe the fundamental use of this blood test will be to develop a vaccine to identify if a T cell reaction to the said vaccine has been produced and if it is enough to be considered protective from infection.

Such a test, he explained, would be administered in laboratories along with others required to test the vaccine. His team also believes that the test will allow public health bodies to execute more extensive screening of the population.

As mentioned, the T-cell test would be administered by laboratories in combination with the antibody test to identify what establishes shielding immunity.

Once this blood test has been proven, the evaluation could then be made accessible to a bigger population. However, it is possible to stay as a test administered in a laboratory.

To date, Dr. Hindley said, there are no tests existing for gauging T cells to COVID-19 in a high throughput way.

He elaborated that any T cell testing for COVID-19 has been administered as part of research work in several specialist labs. 

Such laboratories utilized the ELISpot or flow cytometry. These techniques need highly-trained staff and experts, as well as relatively costly equipment.

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