Pre-clinical studies have demonstrated promising results from use of DNA vaccines. However, clinical trials reported limited anti-tumor responses. One of the reasons for this could be that majority of plasmid DNA (pDNA) gets processed by bystander cells (dermal cells and myocytes) instead of professional antigen presenting cells (APCs), resulting in low antigen production and poor cross-priming. To address this, we wished to evaluate if direct processing of pDNA by professional APCs could augment the resulting immunogenicity. We previously reported that upon passive uptake of pDNA B cells, but not DCs or macrophages could transcribe the encoded antigen. In this report, we evaluated the mechanism of antigen presentation of pDNA by B cells. We utilized pDNA encoding ovalbumin as a model for antigen presentation studies. Utilizing B cells and DCs isolated from C57Bl/6 mice, and CD8 T cells from OT1 (ovalbumin specific) mice, we demonstrated that co-culture of B cells and DCs was required for activation of antigen-specific CD8 T cells. However, B cells were the primary APCs and required licensing through DCs, which occurred through cell-cell interaction(s). RNAseq analysis demonstrated that DC-licensed DNA-loaded B cells represented an activated phenotype, supportive of antigen presentation and had similar gene expression signatures to TLR7/8 activated and/or BCR stimulated B cells. To directly evaluate the phenotype and function of CD8 T cells that resulted from priming through B cells, compared to DCs, we utilized OVA-peptide loaded immature or LPS-matured B cells and DCs. We demonstrated that CD8 T cells primed through peptide loaded immature B cells and immature DCs, resulted in similar phenotypic profiles. Whereas priming through LPS-matured B cells or LPS-matured DCs resulted in different phenotype(s) of CD8 T cells. LPS-matured DCs resulted in increased activation of CD8 T cells, whereas LPS-matured B cells resulted in anergic CD8 T cells (anergic). Additionally, in tumor bearing mice we demonstrated that adoptive transfer of CD8 T cells primed through either immature B cells, LPS-matured DCs or immature DCs resulted in similar anti-tumor efficacy. Collectively, our data warrants additional investigations into understanding the function of B cells as APCs, specifically after passive uptake of pDNA.