Intracellular Cytokine Staining (ICS) Analysis Service

Are you currently facing high inter-laboratory variability, concordance failure in multi-site clinical trials, or challenges obtaining precise individual cell functional data for immunotherapy candidates? Creative Biolabs' Intracellular Cytokine Staining (ICS) Analysis Service helps you streamline clinical trial processes and accelerate drug discovery by delivering highly precise and reproducible T cell functional profiling. We achieve this through rigorous, harmonized workflow and expert, artifact-mitigating protocols validated across global proficiency panels.

Introduction

Cytokine Release Syndrome (CRS) is the most common and potentially life-threatening adverse reaction associated with CAR-T cell therapy, with its incidence and severity critically influencing both therapeutic success and patient safety. Precise monitoring of dynamic cytokine changes in patients is essential for the early prediction, grading, and timely intervention of CRS, serving as a pivotal step to maximize therapeutic benefits and minimize risks. Consequently, ICS analysis, a technique capable of functionally profiling individual immune cells, provides an indispensable tool for elucidating the driving mechanisms of CRS and tracing cytokine sources.

Fig.1 The cytokine storm: mechanisms and implications in immunotherapy.¹

Intracellular Cytokine Staining (ICS) Analysis Service at Creative Biolabs

Creative Biolabs' Intracellular Cytokine Staining (ICS) Analysis Service provides accurate and reliable functional data for vaccine, infectious disease, and oncology programs. The complexity of ICS, which involves a multi-step protocol (stimulation, blocking, fixation, permeabilization) and detailed flow cytometric data analysis, is a major source of variability. Our service mitigates these risks, delivering data that is robust and fit for regulatory submission.

What we can offer

Our ICS analysis service delivers robust, high-resolution functional immune-profiling through a fully optimized workflow encompassing experimental design, sample processing, and data acquisition.

Our Service Process

Required starting materials:

• PBMCs (fresh or cryopreserved) or whole blood.
• Target antigens (e.g., specific peptide pools, recombinant proteins).
• Target cytokine list (e.g., IFN-γ, IL-2, IL-17, Granzyme B).

Key Steps Involved:

Final Deliverables:

• High-Fidelity Flow Cytometry Data (FCS files).
• Standardized Quantitative Report (Frequencies, absolute counts, CV analysis).
• Polyfunctional Analysis Report.

Key Advantages

• Mitigation of Technical Artifacts: We eliminate known artifacts, such as the spurious loss of T cells caused by H2O2 release from activated neutrophils in crude samples, preventing false conclusions of T cell immunosuppression.
• High-Fidelity Polyfunctional Profiling: We accurately measure the co-expression of multiple cytokines within the same cell, providing a true measure of T cell quality and function, which is impossible with bulk assays.
• Identification of Cellular Source: Our method reliably identifies the specific cellular source and dynamics of critical immunoregulatory molecules, addressing the key limitation of traditional techniques.

FAQ

Why Choose Us?

As your trusted partner in high-fidelity immune-monitoring, Creative Biolabs delivers gold-standard ICS Analysis. Our service replaces experimental variability with rigorous standardization and deep scientific insight, transforming your data into clinically relevant, actionable results to accelerate vaccine and immunotherapy programs.

Customer Reviews

"Using Creative Biolabs' Intracellular Cytokine Staining (ICS) Analysis Service in our multi-site vaccine study has significantly improved the concordance and reproducibility of our IFN-γ and IL-2 T-cell responses, allowing us to confidently pool data from different geographies."— Dr. Js M. Fr.

"The team at Creative Biolabs successfully identified and corrected a subtle, confounding artifact in our crude tumor digest samples. Their protocols prevented the H2O2-mediated T cell death that was masking true antigen-specific activation in our initial analysis, giving us accurate data on CD8+ T cell function."— Prof. Er A. Ts.

"We utilize Creative Biolabs' ICS service for a detailed look at the quality of our immune response. Their expert multi-color panel design allowed us to accurately measure five distinct functional T cell subsets, giving us the functional data needed to differentiate our lead candidate from competitors."— De P. An.

How to contact us?

For a detailed consultation on your project needs, custom panel development, or to request a technical validation package, please contact us.

Reference

1. Miao, Lele et al. "Reactions Related to CAR-T Cell Therapy." Frontiers in immunology vol. 12 663201. Distributed under Open Access License CC BY 4.0, without modification. https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2021.663201.