Center for Infectious Disease and Vaccine Research, La Jolla Institute for Immunology, 9420 Athena Circle, La Jolla, CA, 92037, USA.
Center for Infectious Disease and Vaccine Research, La Jolla Institute for Immunology, 9420 Athena Circle, La Jolla, CA, 92037, USA; Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, 92037, USA.
Semin Immunol. 2020 Aug;50:101418. doi: 10.1016/j.smim.2020.101418. Epub 2020 Oct 31.
Epitopes, in the context of T cell recognition, are short peptides typically derived by antigen processing, and presented on the cell surface bound to MHC molecules (HLA molecules in humans) for TCR scrutiny. The identification of epitopes is a context-dependent process, with consideration given to, for example, the source pathogen and protein, the host organism, and state of the immune reaction (e.g., following natural infection, vaccination, etc.). In the following review, we consider the various approaches used to define T cell epitopes, including both bioinformatic and experimental approaches, and discuss the concepts of immunodominance and immunoprevalence. We also discuss HLA polymorphism and epitope restriction, and the resulting impact on the identification of, and potential population coverage afforded by, epitopes or epitope-based vaccines. Finally, some examples of the practical application of T cell epitope identification are provided, showing how epitopes have been valuable for deriving novel immunological insights in the context of the immune response to various pathogens and allergens.
在 T 细胞识别的背景下，表位是通过抗原加工产生的短肽，通常与 MHC 分子（人类中的 HLA 分子）结合并呈现在细胞表面，以供 TCR 检查。表位的识别是一个依赖于上下文的过程，需要考虑例如病原体和蛋白质的来源、宿主生物体以及免疫反应的状态（例如，自然感染后、接种疫苗后等）。在以下综述中，我们考虑了用于定义 T 细胞表位的各种方法，包括生物信息学和实验方法，并讨论了免疫显性和免疫普遍性的概念。我们还讨论了 HLA 多态性和表位限制，以及这对表位或基于表位的疫苗的鉴定和潜在人群覆盖的影响。最后，提供了 T 细胞表位鉴定的一些实际应用示例，展示了表位如何在各种病原体和过敏原免疫反应的背景下为获得新的免疫学见解提供了有价值的信息。
