title: Identification of autoantigen epitopes in MHC class II transgenic mice.
abstract: MHC class II molecules function by selective binding of antigenic peptides, thereby both shaping the T-cell receptor (TCR) repertoire in the thymus and influencing presentation of immunogenic peptides to CD4+ T cells in the periphery. The strong association between a number of human autoimmune diseases (type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and multiple sclerosis) and certain HLA-DR/DQ alleles suggests that it may be possible to alter pathological autoimmune responses by deliberate introduction of autoantigenic peptides in a "tolerogenic" manner. Since there are likely to be differences in epitope selection and epitope spreading in different patients over time, this approach requires identification of all the immunogenic CD4+ T-cell epitopes (dominant, subdominant, or cryptic) of an autoantigen which elicit T-cell responses restricted to the HLA-DR/DQ alleles predisposing to these autoimmune diseases. This paper describes a new approach for the identification of immunogenic peptide epitopes of human autoantigenic proteins using HLA-DR and DQ transgenic mice. These mice are engineered to select a full TCR repertoire which can identify immunogenic peptide epitopes similar or identical to human subjects of the same HLA-DR/DQ genotype. This experimental system also allows comparison of autoantigenic immune responses restricted to disease-susceptible and disease-resistant HLA-DR/DQ alleles.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Stanford University School of Medicine, CA 94305-5124, USA.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sønderstrup
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: McDevitt
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D017951:Antigen Presentation; D001324:Autoantigens / Q000276:immunology*; D000939:Epitopes; D006681:HLA-D Antigens / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D006683:HLA-DQ Antigens / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D015804:HLA-DR4 Antigen / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D016056:Immunodominant Epitopes; D051379:Mice; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011948:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell
chemical_list: D001324:Autoantigens; D000939:Epitopes; D006681:HLA-D Antigens; D006683:HLA-DQ Antigens; C109756:HLA-DQ8 antigen; D015804:HLA-DR4 Antigen; D016056:Immunodominant Epitopes; D011948:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell