αβ TCR-mediated recognition: relevance to tumor-antigen discovery and cancer immunotherapy.

ABSTRACT: αβ T lymphocytes sense perturbations in host cellular body components induced by infectious pathogens, oncogenic transformation, or chemical or physical damage. Millions to billions of these lymphocytes are generated through T-lineage development in the thymus, each endowed with a clonally restricted surface T-cell receptor (TCR). An individual TCR has the capacity to recognize a distinct "foreign" peptide among the myriad of antigens that the mammalian host must be capable of detecting. TCRs explicitly distinguish foreign from self-peptides bound to major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules. This is a daunting challenge, given that the MHC-linked peptidome consists of thousands of distinct peptides with a relevant nonself target antigen often embedded at low number, among orders of

SUBMITTER: Reinherz EL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4391277 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature