Assessing T-cell responses is critical for vaccine development. In vitro methods using SARS-CoV-2 or recombinant vaccinia virus with B cells effectively activate T-cells but require stringent biosafety conditions. As an alternative, we explored attenuated, replication-incompetent viral vectors, such as modified vaccinia Ankara (MVA) and chimpanzee adenoviral vectors (ChAdOx1 and ChAdOx2). These vectors successfully transduced B cells, as confirmed by GFP expression. B cells transduced with ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (encoding SARS-CoV-2 Spike) activated autologous CD8⁺ and CD4⁺ T-cells. Similarly, B cells transduced with MVA encoding Spike activated autologous CD4⁺ T-cells. Our findings provide proof-of-concept support for the use of these safer viral vectors in vitro studies of vaccine-induced cellular immunity.
10.1016/j.virusres.2026.199691
Journal article
2026-02-01T00:00:00+00:00
364
B cells, Biosafety, ChAdOx1, ChAdOx2, MVA, Naturally processed antigens, T-cell activation, Genetic Vectors, Vaccinia virus, Humans, SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 Vaccines, ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, Spike Glycoprotein, Coronavirus, CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes, CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes, Viral Vaccines, B-Lymphocytes, COVID-19, Animals, Lymphocyte Activation, Virus Replication, Immunity, Cellular, Adenoviridae, Transduction, Genetic