Structures of MART-126/27-35 Peptide/HLA-A2 complexes reveal a remarkable disconnect between antigen structural homology and T cell recognition.

ABSTRACT: Small structural changes in peptides presented by major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules often result in large changes in immunogenicity, supporting the notion that T cell receptors are exquisitely sensitive to antigen structure. Yet there are striking examples of TCR recognition of structurally dissimilar ligands. The resulting unpredictability of how T cells will respond to different or modified antigens impacts both our understanding of the physical bases for TCR specificity as well as efforts to engineer peptides for immunomodulation. In cancer immunotherapy, epitopes and variants derived from the MART-1/Melan-A protein are widely used as clinical vaccines. Two overlapping epitopes spanning amino acid residues 26 through 35 are of particular interest: numerous clinical studie

SUBMITTER: Borbulevych OY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2134917 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature