Positional bias of MHC class I restricted T-cell epitopes in viral antigens is likely due to a bias in conservation.

ABSTRACT: The immune system rapidly responds to intracellular infections by detecting MHC class I restricted T-cell epitopes presented on infected cells. It was originally thought that viral peptides are liberated during constitutive protein turnover, but this conflicts with the observation that viral epitopes are detected within minutes of their synthesis even when their source proteins exhibit half-lives of days. The DRiPs hypothesis proposes that epitopes derive from Defective Ribosomal Products (DRiPs), rather than degradation of mature protein products. One potential source of DRiPs is premature translation termination. If this is a major source of DRiPs, this should be reflected in positional bias towards the N-terminus. By contrast, if downstream initiation is a major source of DRiPs, there s

SUBMITTER: Kim Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3554532 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature