[Zurück]

J. Huppa, G. Schütz:
"Single Molecule Methods to Measure Receptor-Ligand Interaction in Immunological Synapses";
in: "Encyclopedia of Cell Biology", 3; herausgegeben von: Ralph A Bradshaw and Philip D Stahl (Editors-in-Chief); Waltham, MA: Academic Press, 2016, S. 660 - 666.

When measured in solution, T-cell antigen receptors (TCRs)
bind their cognate ligand with surprisingly low affinity (micro
molar range). Nonetheless, T-cells are exquisitely sensitive
as they can sense the presence of even a single antigenic
pMHC among thousands of structurally very similar but
nonstimulatory endogenous pMHCs on the APC surface
(Huang et al., 2013). How is this possible? We think that much
of the solution to this problem lies in studying TCR-pMHC in
the right place, i.e. within the immunological synapse, the
transient cell contact between a T-cell and a professional APC
or target cell (Norcross, 1984) (reviewed in Bromley et al.,
2001; Huppa and Davis, 2003), to which T-cell antigen recognition
is invariably linked.