AUTHOR=Cooper Rachel S. , Fraser Alasdair R. , Smith Linda , Burgoyne Paul , Imlach Stuart N. , Jarvis Lisa M. , Turner David M. , Zahra Sharon , Turner Marc L. , Campbell John D. M. TITLE=Rapid GMP-Compliant Expansion of SARS-CoV-2–Specific T Cells From Convalescent Donors for Use as an Allogeneic Cell Therapy for COVID-19 JOURNAL=Frontiers in Immunology VOLUME=11 YEAR=2021 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2020.598402 DOI=10.3389/fimmu.2020.598402 ISSN=1664-3224 ABSTRACT=

COVID-19 disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus is characterized by dysregulation of effector T cells and accumulation of exhausted T cells. T cell responses to viruses can be corrected by adoptive cellular therapy using donor-derived virus-specific T cells. One approach is the establishment of banks of HLA-typed virus-specific T cells for rapid deployment to patients. Here we show that SARS-CoV-2–exposed blood donations contain CD4 and CD8 memory T cells which recognize SARS-CoV-2 spike, nucleocapsid and membrane antigens. Peptides of these antigens can be used to isolate virus-specific T cells in a GMP-compliant process. The isolated T cells can be rapidly expanded using GMP-compliant reagents for use as an allogeneic therapy. Memory and effector phenotypes are present in the selected virus-specific T cells, but our method rapidly expands the desirable central memory phenotype. A manufacturing yield ranging from 1010 to 1011 T cells can be obtained within 21 days culture. Thus, multiple therapeutic doses of virus-specific T cells can be rapidly generated from convalescent donors for potential treatment of COVID-19 patients.