T cell response plays an important role in anti-viral infection and anti-tumor immunity,and antigen-specific T cell detection is essential for study of T cell response.This article reviews progress of antigen-specific T cell detection technology,including enzyme-linked immunospot(ELISPOT)assay,intracellular cytokine staining(ICS)assay and activation-induced labeling(AIM)assay,which based on detection of cytokine secretion or activation phenotypes of specific T cells after stimulation and reactivation with antigen in vitro.Another class of methods include Tetramer technology based on known epitopes-human leukocyte antigen(HLA)restriction and recently developed single-cell transcriptomes and T-cell antigen receptor(TCR)sequencing technology.Application of the above methods has advanced our understanding of antigen specific T cell response:Strength and duration of the response,subpop-ulation information,epitopes and their associated HLA-restriction,TCR cloning information and transcriptome characteristic.

T cell response plays an important role in anti-viral infection and anti-tumor immunity,and antigen-specific T cell detection is essential for study of T cell response.This article reviews progress of antigen-specific T cell detection technology,including enzyme-linked immunospot(ELISPOT)assay,intracellular cytokine staining(ICS)assay and activation-induced labeling(AIM)assay,which based on detection of cytokine secretion or activation phenotypes of specific T cells after stimulation and reactivation with antigen in vitro.Another class of methods include Tetramer technology based on known epitopes-human leukocyte antigen(HLA)restriction and recently developed single-cell transcriptomes and T-cell antigen receptor(TCR)sequencing technology.Application of the above methods has advanced our understanding of antigen specific T cell response:Strength and duration of the response,subpop-ulation information,epitopes and their associated HLA-restriction,TCR cloning information and transcriptome characteristic.