Activation of autoreactive T cells by peptides from human pathogens

✍ Scribed by Stefan Hausmann; Kai W Wucherpfennig

• Book ID: 104358799
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 839 KB
• Volume: 9
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0952-7915
• DOI: 10.1016/s0952-7915(97)80186-0

✦ Synopsis

Activation of autoreactive T cells is a necessary-but not sufficient-step in the development of T cell mediated autoimmunity. Autoreactive T cells can be activated by viral and bacterial peptides that meet the structural requirements for MHC molecule binding and T cell receptor recognition.

Due to the degenerate nature of MHC class 11 molecule binding motifs and a certain degree of flexibility in T cell receptor recognition, such microbial peptides have been found to be quite distinct in their primary sequence from the self-peptide they mimic.