MHC: function and implication on vaccine development

The purpose of this State of the Art review is to present an overview of structural and functional aspects of human MHC molecules and how polymorphisms in HLA molecules determine the nature of the antigenic peptides bound and how such may impact upon rational vaccine development. The following areas will be discussed: elements of immune recognition, class I and class II structure and function, the class I antigen processing pathway, class II antigen processing and presentation, functional divergence among T-cells recognizing class I or class II MHC molecules, and rational vaccine development. While the first section will review our current understanding of MHC structure and function, the latter part will draw on my own work with Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) antigens.