T-cell signaling process central to immune response
Now, a team of scientists at UC Santa Cruz and the National Institutes of Health has obtained the first glimpse of the molecular mechanism by which recognition of an antigen (such as a viral protein) by the T cell receptor triggers the first steps leading to an immune response. The new findings, published May 16 in Nature Communications , implicate changes in the molecular structure of the T cell receptor that propagate from the antigen recognition site on the outside of the cell to a signaling site inside the cell. The activation signal then triggers a complex "signaling cascade" within the T cell, leading to a range of possible responses by the cell. "This provides the first hint of the mechanism that triggers that signaling cascade," said Nikolaos Sgourakis, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry at UC Santa Cruz and co-senior author of the paper. "We don't yet have a full reconstruction of the signaling system, but for the first time ...