Salzmann M, Bachmann M F
Basel Institute for Immunology, Switzerland.
Mol Immunol. 1998 Feb;35(2):65-71. doi: 10.1016/s0161-5890(98)00020-0.
Recognition of peptide/MHC complexes by T-cell receptors (TCRs) is a critical step for T-cell activation. We studied T-cell activation as a function of this interaction using a mathematical model. Unlike other models analysing TCR-MHC/peptide interactions, this study takes into account that both TCRs and MHC/peptide complexes are anchored in membranes and not in solution. The proposed model quantitatively predicts several essential features of antigen-specific T-cell activation, including the experimentally determined rate of TCR-downregulation during peptide-specific T-cell stimulation. In addition, the model offers an explanation as to why the affinity of the TCR for MHC/peptide complexes is low in general and it correctly predicts the on-rates of the TCR-MHC/peptide interaction observed in different model systems. Thus, the proposed model predicts key parameters of T-cell activation and offers an explanation for the surprisingly low affinity of the TCR for its antigen.
T细胞受体（TCR）识别肽/MHC复合物是T细胞激活的关键步骤。我们使用数学模型研究了作为这种相互作用函数的T细胞激活。与其他分析TCR-MHC/肽相互作用的模型不同，本研究考虑到TCR和MHC/肽复合物都锚定在膜中而非溶液中。所提出的模型定量预测了抗原特异性T细胞激活的几个基本特征，包括肽特异性T细胞刺激期间实验确定的TCR下调速率。此外，该模型解释了为什么TCR对MHC/肽复合物的亲和力通常较低，并正确预测了在不同模型系统中观察到的TCR-MHC/肽相互作用的结合速率。因此，所提出的模型预测了T细胞激活的关键参数，并解释了TCR对其抗原的亲和力出奇低的原因。
