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Updated: Jul 13, 2026

Use of Single Chain MHC Technology to Investigate Co-agonism in Human CD8+ T Cell Activation
Published on: February 28, 2019
Cutting edge: Evidence of direct TCR alpha-chain interaction with superantigen
Nick Pumphrey1, Annelise Vuidepot, Bent Jakobsen
1Avidex Limited, Abingdon, Oxon, United Kingdom.
Abstract:
Superantigens are known to activate a large number of T cells. The SAg is presented by MHC class II on the APC and its classical feature is that it recognizes the variable region of the beta-chain of the TCR. In this article, we report, by direct binding studies, that staphylococcal enterotoxin (SE) H (SEH), a bacterial SAg secreted by Staphylococcus aureus, instead recognizes the variable alpha-chain (TRAV27) of TCR. Furthermore, we show that different SAgs (e.g., SEH and SEA) can simultaneously bind to one TCR by binding the alpha-chain and the beta-chain, respectively. Theoretical three-dimensional models of the penta complexes are presented. Hence, these findings open up a new dimension of the biology of the staphylococcal enterotoxins.
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