State Key Laboratory of Cellular Stress Biology and School of Life Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian, China.
Cell Res. 2012 Jan;22(1):33-42. doi: 10.1038/cr.2012.1. Epub 2012 Jan 3.
Historically, sharing T cell receptors (TCRs) between individuals has been speculated to be impossible, considering the dramatic discrepancy between the potential enormity of the TCR repertoire and the limited number of T cells generated in each individual. However, public T cell response, in which multiple individuals share identical TCRs in responding to a same antigenic epitope, has been extensively observed in a variety of immune responses across many species. Public T cell responses enable individuals within a population to generate similar antigen-specific TCRs against certain ubiquitous pathogens, leading to favorable biological outcomes. However, the relatively concentrated feature of TCR repertoire may limit T cell response in a population to some other pathogens. It could be a great benefit for human health if public T cell responses can be manipulated. Therefore, the mechanistic insight of public TCR generation is important to know. Recently, high-throughput DNA sequencing has revolutionized the study of immune receptor repertoires, which allows a much better understanding of the factors that determine the overlap of TCR repertoire among individuals. Here, we summarize the current knowledge on public T-cell response and discuss future challenges in this field.
从历史上看，考虑到 T 细胞受体 (TCR) 库的巨大潜力与个体中产生的有限数量的 T 细胞之间存在显著差异，因此人们推测个体之间共享 TCR 是不可能的。然而，在多种免疫反应中，已经广泛观察到公共 T 细胞反应，即多个个体在对相同抗原表位的反应中共享相同的 TCR。公共 T 细胞反应使群体中的个体能够针对某些普遍存在的病原体产生相似的抗原特异性 TCR，从而带来有利的生物学结果。然而，TCR 库的相对集中特征可能会限制群体对某些其他病原体的 T 细胞反应。如果能够操纵公共 T 细胞反应，这将对人类健康产生巨大的益处。因此，了解公共 TCR 产生的机制至关重要。最近，高通量 DNA 测序技术彻底改变了免疫受体库的研究，使我们能够更好地理解决定个体之间 TCR 库重叠的因素。在这里，我们总结了目前关于公共 T 细胞反应的知识，并讨论了该领域未来的挑战。
