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23.10.2013 - (idw) Jacobs University Bremen

MHC tetramers are important diagnostic reagents that are used by doctors and scientists to follow a patient's immune response against a virus or a tumor. Their application has so far been limited because they are difficult to make and expensive. An invention by the research group of Sebastian Springer, Professor of Biochemistry and Cell Biology at Jacobs University, now promises to change that. MHC class I molecules are proteins that bind to peptides from the interior of infected or cancerous cells and transport them to the cell surface. There the virus- or tumor-derived peptides are recognized by cytotoxic T lymphocytes, so-called killer T cells, with the help of their T cell receptors. The killer T cells can then remove infected or malignant cells by inducing programmed cell death. To find out how many killer T cells exist for each virus or tumor peptide, doctors and scientists use the same MHC class I proteins, bound to that peptide and tied together in clusters of four, to stain T cells from patient blood. These clusters of four, or 'tetramers', are made in a multi-step process that takes several weeks and is expensive. For every new peptide scientists want to investigate, the production process has to start over, which adds to the cost.

For questions regarding the study, please contact: Sebastian Springer | Professor for Biochemistry and Cell Biology E-Mail: s.springer@jacobs-university.de | Tel.: 0421 200-3243

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