Figure 2.
Demonstration and characterization of the T-cell Biofactory function. Bioluminescence due to Nluc activity (n = 4 for all observations, error bar indicates ±1 SD) was a surrogate to quantify the Effector protein expression. Statistical significance for all comparisons was based on two-sample t-tests with common variance. The S/N quantitatively indicated the potential for synthesizing and secreting the engineered protein in the absence of specific antigen-presenting target cells. A) The T-cell Biofactory synthesizes and secretes Effector proteins upon stimulation by antigen-presenting target cells. The activity was statistically significantly different when compared to the control T-cell Biofactories (i) without the Secretor, and (ii) without the Secretor and without the Sensor–Receptor. B) The Effector protein activity was increased within 1 h (p = 0.0032) when stimulated by target versus nontarget cells. C) Sustained activity of the Effector protein was observed for 10 d when stimulated by target versus nontarget cells. D) The Effector protein activity was proportional to the mass of target cells. E) The specificity of the FRa-specific T-cell Biofactory was redirected to target MSLN by exchanging the VH−VL Sensor domain.