title: T cell responses to antigen: hasty proposals resolved through long engagements.
abstract: T cells discriminate between peptide-MHC complexes on the surfaces of antigen presenting cells to enact appropriate downstream responses. Great progress has been made over the last 15 years in understanding varied aspects of T cell activation on short timescales (minutes), yet the mechanics and significance of long term T cell receptor signaling (hours or days) remain unclear. Furthermore, there remain some controversies regarding the correlation of the biophysical parameters of ligand-receptor interactions with the scaling of downstream effector functions. Here we review recent studies that emphasize the importance of long-term engagement of antigens to fine-tuning the activation of T cells over the duration of the complete immune response. We discuss how T cells dynamically regulate T cell receptor signaling via antigen crosstalk, competition and consumption to accurately counter antigenic challenges.
authors.affiliation: ImmunoDynamics Group, Programs in Computational Biology and Immunology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY 10065, USA.
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tkach
authors.forename: Grégoire
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Altan-Bonnet
mesh_terms: D000941:Antigens / Q000276:immunology*; D055592:Biophysical Phenomena / Q000276:immunology; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods; D025461:Feedback, Physiological; D006801:Humans; D007111:Immunity, Cellular; D008024:Ligands; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D011336:Probability; D011485:Protein Binding; D020239:Receptor Cross-Talk; D011948:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell / Q000819:agonists / Q000737:chemistry*; D015398:Signal Transduction; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D000941:Antigens; D008024:Ligands; D011948:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell