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Pathways of antigen processing

Janice S Blum1, Pamela A Wearsch, Peter Cresswell

  • 1Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana 46202, USA. jblum@iupui.edu

Annual Review of Immunology
|January 10, 2013
PubMed

T cell recognition of antigen-presenting cells depends on their expression of a spectrum of peptides bound to major histocompatibility complex class I (MHC-I) and class II (MHC-II) molecules. Conversion of antigens from pathogens or transformed cells into MHC-I- and MHC-II-bound peptides is critical for mounting protective T cell responses, and similar processing of self proteins is necessary to establish and maintain tolerance. Cells use a variety of mechanisms to acquire protein antigens, from translation in the cytosol to variations on the theme of endocytosis, and to degrade them once acquired. In this review, we highlight the aspects of MHC-I and MHC-II biosynthesis and assembly that have evolved to intersect these pathways and sample the peptides that are produced.

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