Direct binding of autoimmune disease related T cell epitopes to purified Lewis rat MHC class II molecules
Abstract
New strategies applied in the treatment of experimental autoimmune disease models involve blocking or modulation of MHC-peptide-TCR interactions either at the level of peptide-MHC interaction or, alternatively, at the level of T cell recognition. In order to identify useful competitor peptides one must be able to assess peptide-MHC interactions. Several well described autoimmune disease models exist in the Lewis rat and thus this particular rat strain provides a good model system to study the effect of competitor peptides. So far no information has been available on the peptide binding characteristics of the Lewis rat MHC class II RT1.B1 molecule. We have now developed a biochemical binding assay which enables competition studies in which the relative MHC binding affinity of a set of non-labelled peptides can be assessed while employing detection of biotinylated marker peptides by chemiluminescence. The assay is sensitive and specific. We have used this assay to determine the binding characteristics of several disease associated T cell determinants and their sequence analogues in the Lewis rat. Notably, most of the autoimmune disease associated peptide sequences tested were found to be intermediate to poor binders. Single amino...Continue Reading
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Autoimmune Diseases
Autoimmune diseases occur as a result of an attack by the immune system on the body’s own tissues resulting in damage and dysfunction. There are different types of autoimmune diseases, in which there is a complex and unknown interaction between genetics and the environment. Discover the latest research on autoimmune diseases here.