Journal article
The impact of a large and frequent deletion in the human TCR β locus on antiviral immunity
RM Brennan, J Petersen, MA Neller, JJ Miles, JM Burrows, C Smith, J McCluskey, R Khanna, J Rossjohn, SR Burrows
Journal of Immunology | Published : 2012
Abstract
The TCR plays a critical role in recognizing intracellular pathogens and initiating pathways leading to the destruction of infected cells by the immune system. Although genetic variability is known to greatly impact on the human immune system and the outcome of infection, the influence of sequence variation leading to the inactivation or deletion of TCR gene segments is unknown. To investigate this issue, we examined the CD8 + T cell response to an HLA-B7-restricted epitope ( 265RPHERNGFTVL 275) from the pp65 Ag of human CMV that was highly biased and frequently dominated by a public TCR β-chain encoded by the variable gene segment TRBV4-3. Approximately 40% of humans lack T cells expressing..
View full abstractGrants
Funding Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (Principal Research Fellowships to S. R. B. and R. K. and an Australia Fellowship to J.R.), the C.J. Martin Overseas Biomedical Fellowship (to J.J.M.), a Dora Lush Scholarship (to R. M. B.), and by grants from the National Health and Medical Research Council and the Australian Research Council.