抗体应用

The binding of bound peptide ligands to major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules plays a key role in the activation of normal immune responses and is an intricate theoretical problem that remains unsolved. Geometric and energetic complementarities between an MHC molecule a ...

Antigenic peptide is presented to a T-cell receptor (TCR) through the formation of a stable complex with a major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecule. Various predictive algorithms have been developed to estimate a peptide’s capacity to form a stable complex with a given MHC class II al ...

An iterative approach to resolving protein–peptide binding motifs is appropriate when the length of the binding protein is variable and a variety of amino acid residues may successfully occupy multiple positions. This chapter describes an iterative algorithm that first aligns bind ...

Methods for predicting the binding affinity of peptides to the MHC have become more sophisticated in the past 5–10 years. It is possible to use computational quantitative structure-activity methods to build models of peptide affinity that are truly predictive. Two of the most useful methods ...

Prediction of class II major histocompatibility complex (MHC)–peptide binding is a challenging task due to variable length of binding peptides. Different computational methods have been developed; however, each has its own strength and weakness. In order to provide reliable predic ...

The transporter associated with antigen processing (TAP) plays a crucial role in the transport of the peptide fragments of the proteolysed antigenic or self-altered proteins to the endoplasmic reticulum where the association between these peptides and the major histocompatibil ...

In this chapter, two prediction servers of linear B-cell epiotpes have been described; (i) BcePred, based on physico-chemical properties that include hydrophilicity, flexibility/mobility, accessibility, polarity, exposed surface, turns, and antigenicity and ii) ABCpred, ba ...

The HistoCheck webtool provides clinicians and researchers with a way of visualizing and understanding the structural differences among related major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules. In the clinical setting, human leukocyte antigen (HLA) matching of hematopoi ...

In this chapter, three prediction servers used for predicting virulence factors, bacterial toxins, and neurotoxins have been described. VICMpred server predicts the functional proteins of gram-negative bacteria that include virulence factors, information molecule, cell ...

Gene indices with many thousands of entries have been constructed by tag sequencing of randomly selected cDNA clones (1–7) and are widely available in repositories, such as the dbEST database (16). As more and more genes are identified, efforts are redirected towards understanding the contr ...

CD4+ T helper (Th) cells are crucial for the generation of the antigen-specific immune response (1). They regulate many different aspects of the immune response, both by the secretion of cytokines and through cell surface expressed molecules. CD4+ precursor (Thp) Th cells or naive Th cells are ful ...

One of the earliest detectable responses following TCR ligation is the phosphorylation of cellular proteins on either serine, threonine, or tyrosine residues. These covalent modifications are mediated by kinases, and are thought to facilitate various cellular functions, inclu ...

Stimulation of T lymphocytes, as induced by the interaction of their T-cell receptor with a peptide/MHC complex or by the use of anti-CD3 antibodies, triggers the activation of tyrosine kinases activities within a few seconds. This very early step leads to a series of biochemical events that incl ...

T-cell differentiation is a tightly controlled developmental program observed as the stepwise progression of immature thymocytes through several unique stages characterized by the expression of distinct combinations of cell surface markers. The advancement of thymocytes ...

CD45 is a leukocyte specific protein tyrosine phosphatase and is a major lymphocyte cell surface glycoprotein (see refs. 1–3 for reviews). CD45 has been shown to be important for the transmission of signals by the T and B cell antigen receptors during both development and antigen induced activat ...

The earliest steps along the pathway leading to mature T cells in mouse thymus have been defined (1,2). Within the thymus, several minute but discrete populations of T cell precursors develop in sequence, preceding the stage of CD4+8+ thymocytes (Fig. 1). The earliest identifiable intrathymic p ...

The recognition phase of the cell-mediated immune response is studied in vitro by monitoring responses of CD4+ T cells, cultured in the presence of specific antigen. Conventional cultures include mononuclear cells separated from peripheral blood by a complex and time-consuming proc ...

Transmembrane stimulation of lymphocytes at the G0–G1 resting phase, induced by specific antigens, mitogens, or by antibodies to certain cell surface molecules, results in a complex series of well-characterized molecular events, culminating in lymphocyte activation, transfo ...

T-cell activation by antigen-receptor ligation results in rapid activation of phospholipase-Cγ1 (PLC). Activated PLC hydrolyzes membrane inositol phospholipids (PIP2) generating two second messengers: inositol(1,4,5)tris phosphate (IP3) and diacylglycerol (DG) (1). I ...

If truth be told, when asked to write this chapter my first reaction was not positive; I thought “I am too young! (aren’t I?).” However, when I considered the Editor’s request, I realized that I had been fortunate to have had my formative scientific years coincide with extraordinary advances in our underst ...