An In Vitro Approach to Prime or Boost Human Antigen-Specific CD8<sup>+</sup> T Cell Responses: Applications to Vaccine Studies
Although vaccine development has primarily focused on inducing neutralizing antibodies, increasing evidence supports an important role of CD8<sup>+</sup> T cell responses in vaccine effectiveness. Routine assays, which are mainly based on antibody titers, may therefore not accurately ref...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2025-07-01
|
| Series: | Vaccines |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2076-393X/13/7/729 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| Summary: | Although vaccine development has primarily focused on inducing neutralizing antibodies, increasing evidence supports an important role of CD8<sup>+</sup> T cell responses in vaccine effectiveness. Routine assays, which are mainly based on antibody titers, may therefore not accurately reflect the full immune response elicited by vaccination. Assessing antigen-specific T cell responses upon vaccination poses several challenges. A common issue in studying T cells specific to a vaccine antigen is their low frequency in circulation, which can limit their ex vivo analysis. Moreover, the use of human cell-based models is crucial for studying and optimizing the induction of T cell responses to design effective vaccines. We developed an innovative in vitro approach of human CD8<sup>+</sup> T cell priming, based on the rapid mobilization of dendritic cells (DCs) directly from unfractionated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). This simple and original method allows for side-by-side comparisons of multiple test parameters in a standardized system, providing both quantitative and qualitative readouts of primed antigen-specific CD8<sup>+</sup> T cells. Here, we discuss the genesis of this approach and its versatile applications, including monitoring antigen-specific T cell responses, evaluating an individual’s T cell priming capacity, and conducting preclinical studies on potential adjuvants and vaccine candidates. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 2076-393X |