The adaptive immune response to Epstein-Barr virus

Abstract

School of Medicine iiMajor histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules form medleys with peptide antigens which are expressed on the cell surface for recognition by CD8 + T cells. Derived from antigens synthesized in the cytoplasm, these peptides are generally 8-10 amino acids in length. For most MHC alleles two of the pockets within the peptide binding groove display a marked preference for one or two amino acids at certain anchor positions within the peptide. This was the breakthrough discovery that enabled more efficient CTL epitope mapping. Dependent on this information, web-based algorithms used to predict CD8 + T cell epitopes were designed to include peptides limited to between 8 and 10 residues. The apparent dominance of MHC class I peptides of 8 to 10 amino acids in length may be misleading and result from this bias of widely used