Antigen-specific stimulation of T cells

摘要

The following are claimed: (1) a method for stimulating T cells with a desired antigen specificity, comprising: (a) introducing immortalising genes into antigen-presenting cells (APCs), where the expression and/or function of at least one of the genes is regulatable, to obtain conditionally immortalised APCs; (b) introducing a gene coding for the desired antigen into the conditionally immortalised APCs in such a way that the antigen is expressible after inhibiting the expression and/or function of at least one of the immortalising genes; (c) expanding the APCs by expressing and/or functionally activating the immortalising genes; (d) stopping proliferation of the APCs by inhibiting the expression and/or function of at least one of the regulatable immortalising genes; (e) continuing expression of the antigen; (f) adding leukocytes, including T cells, and culturing the cell mixture to stimulate T cells directed against the desired antigen; and (g) optionally purifying and isolating the stimulated T cells; (2) a method for stimulating T cells with a desired antigen specificity, comprising: (a) introducing immortalising genes into antigen-presenting cells (APCs), where the expression and/or function of at least one of the genes is regulatable, to obtain conditionally immortalised APCs; (b) introducing a gene coding for the desired antigen into the conditionally immortalised APCs in such a way that the antigen is expressible after inhibiting the expression and/or function of at least one of the immortalising genes; (c) expanding the APCs by expressing and/or functionally activating the immortalising genes; (d) adding leukocytes, including T cells, to a first aliquot of the cells from step (c) and culturing the cell mixture to stimulate T cells directed against the desired antigen; (e) stopping proliferation of a second aliquot of the cells from step (c) by inhibiting the expression and/or function of at least one of the regulatable immortalising genes; (f) coculturing the cells from step (e) with the stimulated T cells from step (d) to restimulate T cells directed against the desired antigen; and (g) optionally purifying and isolating the stimulated T cells.