title: T cell receptor crossreactivity as a general property of T cell recognition.
abstract: TCR recognition of MHC/peptide complexes directs many aspects of T cell biology, including thymic selection, survival of naïve T cells and differentiation into effector and memory T cells. It was widely thought that TCR recognition is highly specific, with an individual T cell being capable of only recognizing a particular peptide and closely related sequence variants. By considering the structural requirements for peptide binding to MHC molecules and TCR recognition of MHC/peptide complexes, we demonstrated that T cell clones could recognize a number of peptides from different organisms that are remarkably distinct in their primary sequence. These peptides are particularly diverse at those sequence positions buried in pockets of the MHC binding site, while a higher degree of similarity is present at a limited number of peptide residues that create the interface with the TCR. Many examples have now been documented for human and murine T cells, indicating that TCR crossreactivity represents a general feature of TCR recognition.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cancer Immunology & AIDS, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute & Department of Neurology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. wucherpf@mbcrr.harvard.edu
authors.forename: Kai W
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Wucherpfennig
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003429:Cross Reactions / Q000276:immunology; D015802:HLA-DR2 Antigen / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology; D006649:Histocompatibility Antigens / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D004676:Myelin Basic Protein / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology; D010446:Peptide Fragments / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology; D010455:Peptides / Q000276:immunology; D011948:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell / Q000276:immunology*; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D015802:HLA-DR2 Antigen; D006649:Histocompatibility Antigens; D004676:Myelin Basic Protein; D010446:Peptide Fragments; D010455:Peptides; D011948:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell; C107908:myelin basic protein 85-99