Abstract
Potency testing is an important part of the evaluation of cellular therapy products. Potency assays are quantitative measures of a product-specific biological activity that is linked to a relevant biological property and, ideally, a product's in vivo mechanism of action. Both in vivo and in vitro assays can be used for potency testing. Since there is often a limited period of time between the completion of production and the release from the laboratory for administration to the patient, in vitro assays such are flow cytometry, ELISA, and cytotoxicity are typically used. Better potency assays are needed to assess the complex and multiple functions of cellular therapy products, some of which are not well understood. Gene expression profiling using microarray technology has been widely and effectively used to assess changes of cells in response to stimuli and to classify cancers. Preliminary studies have shown that the expression of noncoding microRNA which play an important role in cellular development, differentiation, metabolism and signal transduction can distinguish different types of stem cells and leukocytes. Both gene and microRNA expression profiling have the potential to be important tools for testing the potency of cellular therapies. Potency testing, the complexities associated with potency testing of cellular therapies, and the potential role of gene and microRNA expression microarrays in potency testing of cellular therapies is discussed.
Highlights
Cellular therapies are making a major contribution to the emerging field of biologic therapy
Potential applications of gene expression profiling for potency testing Predicting the confluence of human embryonic kidney 293 cells Gene expression microarrays have been demonstrated to be useful for some cell therapy applications
Human embryonic kidney 293 cells that have been grown to 90% confluence have a unique gene expression signature compared to those grown to 40% confluence
Summary
Cellular therapies are making a major contribution to the emerging field of biologic therapy. When the mechanism of action of a cellular therapy can be attributed to the expression of specific cell surface antigens, the measurement of antigens by flow cytometry can be used as an in vitro potency assay. In addition to assessing potency, gene expression microarrays can assess other important aspects of cellular therapy products such as stability, purity, maturation and differentiation status. Potential applications of gene expression profiling for potency testing Predicting the confluence of human embryonic kidney 293 cells Gene expression microarrays have been demonstrated to be useful for some cell therapy applications. They can be used to predict the quality of cells used to manufacture biologic products. While gene expression cDNA microarrays contain 10,000 to 35,000 probes, the number of miRNA currently identified is only in the hundreds
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