METHODS OF IDENTIFYING CENTRAL MEMORY T CELLS AND OBTAINING ANTIGEN-SPECIFIC T CELL POPULATIONS

摘要

The invention provides a method of obtaining a population of antigen-specific T cells comprising: (i) dividing PBMCs from peripheral blood of a host into more than one sub-population; (ii) contacting the PBMCs of each sub-population with an antigen; (iii) obtaining a sample of the contacted PBMCs from each sub-population; (iv) measuring the quantity of 1) IL-2 mRNA and 2) IFN-gamma mRNA expressed by the PBMCs of each sample; (v) determining the IL-2 index of each sample; (vi) identifying one or more samples with an IL-2 index determined in (v) of greater than or equal to about 10 to identify one or more antigen-reactive, central memory T cell sub-populations; (vii) dividing the antigen-reactive, central memory T cell sub-population(s) identified in (vi) into microcultures; (viii) identifying one or more antigen-reactive microcultures; and (ix) expanding the microculture(s).