Design Parameters for Granzyme-Mediated Cytotoxic Lymphocyte Target-Cell Killing and Specificity.

ABSTRACT: Cytotoxic lymphocytes are key elements of the immune system that are primarily responsible for targeting cells infected with intracellular pathogens, or cells that have become malignantly transformed. Target cells are killed mainly via lymphocyte exocytosis of specialized lysosomes containing perforin, a pore-forming protein, and granzymes, which are proteases that induce apoptosis. Due to its central role in lymphocyte biology, as well as its implication in a host of pathologies from cancer to autoimmunity, the granzyme-perforin pathway has been the subject of extensive investigation. Nevertheless, the details of exactly how granzyme and perforin cooperate to induce target-cell death remain controversial. To further investigate this system, we developed a biophysical model of the immunolo

SUBMITTER: Woodsworth DJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4572491 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature