Explore how Xynapse™ reagents can substitute APCs in potency tests and antigen challenge assays.
Potent Two-Signal Activation and Expansion of T Cells and TCR-Engineered T Cells with Xynapse™ Reagents
A convenient and customizable solution to mimic the TCR immunological synapse with a defined pMHC-TCR interaction and CD28 engagement.
Xynapse™-T Reagents
Eliminate the hassle and variability of antigen-specific activation and expansion of T cells and TCR-T cells with peptide-pulsed antigen-presenting cells (APCs).
Instead, design standardized and flexible assays and workflows with a robust, modular non-cellular antigen-presenting molecule.
A Molecular Mimic of Nature’s Design
Xynapse™-T reagents consist of non-cellular antigen-presenting scaffolds that trigger T cell activation and expansion via two-signal engagement. Each scaffold presents optimally clustered peptide-MHC complexes of your choice (signal 1) and (signal 2) that elicit activation of antigen-specific T cells comparable to peptide-pulsed APCs.
Order Xynapse™-T Reagents
Xynapse™-T reagents are available with a broad range of MHC class I and II, CD1d and MR1 alleles of human origin. We also recommend including a negative control reagent.
Product Description |
Test Size |
Price |
| Xynapse™-T, pMHC/aCD28 | 100 μl | On request |
| Xynapse™-T, pMHC/aCD28 | 250 μl | On request |
To request a quotation for Xynapse™-T reagents, please let us know:
- Your desired MHC allele-peptide combination
- Size (100 μl or 250 μl). We recommend using Xynapse™-T reagent at 100x dilution (v/v).
Request Quotation
Why Use Xynapse™-T?
- An easy-to-use reagent that achieves the same T cell activation, expansion, and functionality as APCs but without lengthy pre-culture and variable outcomes.
- Enables high-fold clonal expansion of antigen-specific T cells or TCR-engineered T cells.
- Stimulates cytokine production patterns in antigen-specific T cells akin to activation protocols using peptide-pulsed APCs.
Looking for other costimulatory or coinhibitory molecules? Contact us!
Strong Expansion of Antigen-Specific T Cells
Like APCs, Xynapse™-T reagents elicit strong expansion of antigen-specific T cells. That specificity results in an enrichment of relevant T cells that cannot be achieved with aCD3 & aCD28 antibody-based general T cell activation reagents, which indiscriminately stimulate all T cells.
In the experiment illustrated to the left, TCR-engineered T cells were expanded with Xynapse™-T reagents, an aCD3/aCD28 general T cell activation agent, or APCs.
All treatments achieved similar expansion of total cell counts. But enrichment of TCR engineered cells was achieved only with Xynapse™-T and APC stimulation, the proportion of TCR engineered cells increasing from 34% to 67% after 8 days of culture.
Data kindly provided by collaborator
Antigen-Specific Activation of T Cells
Xynapse™-T reagents trigger cytokine expression patterns comparable to those elicited by activation with peptide-pulsed APCs. The stimulation is antigen-specific and restricted to the target T cells.
In this example TCR engineered T cells and their parental wild type cells were stimulated in three ways. Xynapse™-T and APCs stimulate IFNγ expression in TCR engineered T cells only while the aCD3 & aCD28 antibody-based general T cell activation reagent also stimulates the parental wild-type T cells.
Thus, the advantages of designing evaluative assays, like potency tests, with Xynapse™-T reagents are significantly shorter and less labor-intensive workflows compared to working with APCs and analytics that measure the activity of relevant cells only.
Data kindly provided by collaborator
Favored Memory Phenotype Among Expanded Cells
Dose alone does not determine the success of an advanced therapeutic cell product. Accumulating evidence suggests that early differentiation phenotypes are important for the therapeutic power of T cell products.
Stem cell memory and central memory phenotypes have greater proliferative and cytokine secretion potential that translates to better engraftment and stronger, longer-lasting anti-tumor activity.¹
A comparison of the phenotypic composition of TCR edited T cells activated via Xynapse™-T reagents versus an aCD3 & aCD28 antibody-based general T cell activation agent shows a substantially larger proportion of stem cell memory T cells in the Xynapse™-T-activated population.
Want to see more results?
Our collaborators have tested the performance of Xynapse™-T for activation and expansion of engineered TCR-T cells.
The results show that Xynapse-T can stimulate TCR-T cells in an antigen-specific manner comparable to APCs, resulting in:
- Cytokine secretion and activation biomarker expression
- Enrichment of TCR engineered T cells comparable to what was achieved with APCs
- Phenotype of Xynapse™-T stimulated T cells resembles phenotype of cells activated by APCs
Contact us and we will be happy to present these results to you.
Contact us
Expansion of MART-1 Specific Cells
The ability to expand rare subpopulations of antigen-specific T cells is extremely valuable for a range of applications including TCR discovery and the development of immunotherapeutics.
PBMCs from five healthy donors were stimulated with Xynapse™-T A*0201/MART-1/aCD28 reagent, and the frequency of MART-1 specific cells was analyzed using HLA-A*0201/MART-1 Dextramer®.
Expansion of MART-1 specific T cells was observed in 3 out of 5 healthy donors to levels sufficient for TCR discovery after 13 days.
Expansion of MART-1 specific T cells was observed in 3 out of 5 healthy donors, to levels sufficient for TCR discovery after 13 days.
Speed up potency testing and other antigen-challenge assays
Methods to examine immune cell interactions and thus, understand and leverage immunity to treat disease are labor and time-intensive. Reagents that combine usability with potent T cell activation may change the game.
Enrich for rare T cells
Researching the therapeutic potential of rare T cells like tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) is difficult as their low cell count make them inaccessible to several characterization methods. But what if those numbers can be specifically amplified?
"Xynapse™ is a time saver - no need for pre-culturing or preparation of a cell bank."
QC Scientist, TCR-T Cell Therapy Company
"Xynapse™ gives us much greater flexibility - we can just do the potency assay tomorrow."
QC Scientist, TCR-T Cell Therapy Company
Xynapse™-T Protocol
Review the protocol for antigen-specific stimulation of T cells using Xynapse™-T reagents.
¹Agliardi, G. et al. (2024) Accelerating and optimizing CAR T-cell manufacture to deliver better patient products. The Lancet Hematology 12: e57–e67. doi: 10.1016/S2352-3026(24)00273-4