Method for Stimulating T Cell and Use Thereof

摘要

An object of the present invention is to stimulate a T cell without using a peptide/MHC tetramer. In the present invention, the step of supplying an antigen peptide to a T cell having a T cell receptor (TCR) that can recognize the antigen peptide on cell surface to form a complex of a major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecule on the cell surface of the T cell and the antigen peptide is used, and the T cell is stimulated through recognition by TCR of the antigen peptide as the MHC molecule-antigen peptide complex on the cell surface of the same T cell. Such a stimulating and activating method would be applicable to not only T cells, but also various cells. According to the present invention, an antigen-specific T cell can be identified without establishing any antigen-specific T cell strain, and without using such a reagent as MHC/peptide tetramer. That is, a cancer-specific T cell can be efficiently and conveniently identified.

主权项

1. A method for stimulating a target cell with an antigen peptide, wherein:
the antigen peptide is supplied to an MHC molecule on cell surface of the target cell to form an MHC molecule-antigen peptide complex, the target cell is stimulated through recognition of the MHC molecule-antigen peptide complex by a T cell receptor (TCR) that can recognize the antigen peptide, TCR exists on the cell surface of the target cell, or exists on the same plane as that of the target cell, and the T cell is stimulated by an interaction of TCR and the MHC molecule-antigen peptide complex in the positional relationship of cis in the absence of presentation of the antigen peptide by another antigen-presenting cell (APC).