Rational antigen modification as a strategy to upregulate or downregulate antigen recognition
✍ Scribed by Scott I Abrams; Jeffrey Schlom
- Book ID
- 104359034
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 2000
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 129 KB
- Volume
- 12
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0952-7915
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Recent and rapid advances in our understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms of antigen recognition by CD8 + and CD4 + T lymphocytes have led to the birth of possibilities for sitedirected, rational modification of cognate antigenic determinants. This immunologic concept has vast biomedical implications for regulation of host immunity against the pathogenesis of diverse disease processes. The upregulation of antigen-specific T-cell responses by 'agonistic' peptides would be most desirable in response to invasive pathogenic challenges, such as infectious and neoplastic disease, while the downregulation of antigenspecific T-cell responses by 'antagonistic' peptides would be most efficacious during inappropriate pathologic consequences, such as autoimmunity. The capacity to experimentally manipulate intrinsic properties of cognate peptide ligands to appropriately alter the nature, course and potency of cellular immune interactions has important potential in both preventive and therapeutic clinical paradigms.