TRain: T-cell receptor automated immunoinformatics.

Background: The scarcity of available structural data makes characterizing the binding of T-cell receptors (TCRs) to peptide-Major Histocompatibility Complexes (pMHCs) very challenging. The recent surge in sequencing data makes TCRs an ideal target for protein structure modeling. Through these 3D models, researchers can potentially identify key motifs on the TCR's binding regions.

TLR9 agonism differentially impacts human NK cell-mediated direct killing and antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity.

There are two known mechanisms by which natural killer (NK) cells recognize and kill diseased targets: (i) direct killing and (ii) antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC). We investigated an indirect NK cell activation strategy for the enhancement of human NK cell killing function. We did this by leveraging the fact that toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9) agonism within pools of human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) results in a robust interferon signaling cascade that leads to NK cell activation.

Development and implementation of natural killer cell simultaneous ADCC and direct killing assay.

Assays to quantify natural killer (NK) cell killing efficacy have traditionally focused on assessing either direct killing or antibody dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) independently. Due to the probability that immunotherapeutic interventions affect NK cell-mediated direct killing and NK cell-mediated ADCC differently, we developed an assay with the capacity to measure NK cell-mediated direct killing and ADCC simultaneously with cells from the same human donor. Specifically, this design allows for a single NK cell population to be split into several experimental conditions (e.