Relaxation Times of Ligand-Receptor Complex Formation Control T Cell Activation.

ABSTRACT: One of the most important functions of immune T cells is to recognize the presence of the pathogen-derived ligands and to quickly respond to them while at the same time not responding to its own ligands. This is known as absolute discrimination, and it is one of the most challenging phenomena to explain. The effectiveness of pathogen detection by T cell receptor is limited by chemical similarity of foreign and self-peptides and very low concentrations of foreign ligands. We propose a new mechanism of how absolute discrimination by T cells might function. It is suggested that the decision to activate or not to activate the immune response is controlled by the time to reach the stationary concentration of the T-cell-receptor-ligand-activated complex, which transfers the signal to downstream

SUBMITTER: Teimouri H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7335936 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature