Generating HPV antigen-specific T cells from a naïve T cell population

A process for producing a human papilloma virus (HPV) antigen-specific T cell comprising:

• (a) dividing mononuclear cells from a sample from any cell source containing naïve immune cells, wherein the cells in the sample are naïve to HPV antigens, into several portions;
• (b) stimulating a first portion of said sample with phytohemagulutinin (PHA) or another mitogen and with interleukin 2 (IL-2) to produce activated T cells (“ATCs”) that serve antigen presenting functions during subsequent stimulations and optionally treating the ATCs with radiation or another agent to inhibit their outgrowth;
• (c) separating T cells and T-cell precursor cells from dendritic cells and dendritic precursor cells in a second portion of the sample;
• (d) cryopreserving or otherwise reserving the T cells and T-cell precursor cells from (c);
• (e) differentiating the separated dendritic cells and dendritic precursor cells from (c) with cytokine(s) or other agent(s) that generate and mature dendritic cells and with at least one HPV peptide antigen or HPV antigen mix to produce antigen-presenting dendritic cells that present at least one HPV peptide antigen, and optionally treating said antigen-presenting dendritic cells with radiation or another agent sufficient to inhibit their outgrowth;
• (f) stimulating the cryopreserved or otherwise reserved T cells and T-cell precursor cells from (d) with the dendritic antigen-presenting cells produced in (e) in the presence of interleukin 7 (IL-7) and interleukin 15 (IL-15) to produce antigen-specific T cells that recognize the at least one HPV peptide antigen;
• (g) stimulating antigen-specific T cells produced by (f) with the ATCs of (b) in the presence of the at least one HPV peptide antigen, optionally, in the presence of K562 cells or other accessory cells in the presence of IL-2 and/or IL-15;
• optionally, repeating (g) one or more times;
• and
• (h) recovering antigen-specific T cells that recognize the at least one HPV peptide antigen.