The Act-T4 Cell™ kit is intended to determine the CD4+ T-cell mediated immune response. This antibody combination allows the identification and quantification of effector CD4+ T-cells after incubation of a whole blood sample with mitogens and/or antigens of interest. The increase of activated CD4+ T-cells total percentage is related to the immune response against the stimulus used.

This method can be used when studying T cell-mediated immune response against pathogens, auto-antigens and allergens. Moreover, it contributes to the evaluation of a patient”s immunocompetence status.

Several studies have recently validated the pre-clinical use of the Act-T4 Cell™ method to evaluate antigenspecific response against virus such as Cytomegalovirus (CMV), Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or bacteria, e.g. Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB). Results were consistent with serology tests, cell proliferation studies and other techniques based on IFN-γ production levels, demonstrating the potential of Act-T4 Cell™ to be an accurate, easy and cost-effective method.

CD25+ CD134+ CD4+ T-cells in response to mitogens and antigens. a, Dot-plots from a representative healthy adult control showing expression for CD25+ CD134+ CD4+ T-cells in the control culture (0) compared with staining in response to PHA and SEB. b, Representative dot-plots from healthy adult controls showing expression for CD25+ CD134+ CD4+T cells in response to MTB, CMV, and Candida.

The percentage of CD25+ CD134+ CD4+ T-cells is shown for each dot-plot. The gates for CD25+ CD134+ CD4+ T-cells were based on comparison of negative control (no antigen) and positive control (PHA).

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