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Publication Abstract from PubMed

Major Histocompatibility Complex class I (MHC-I) molecules display self, viral or aberrant epitopic peptides to T cell receptors (TCRs), which employ interactions between complementarity-determining regions with both peptide and MHC-I heavy chain 'framework' residues to recognize specific Human Leucocyte Antigens (HLAs). The highly polymorphic nature of the HLA peptide-binding groove suggests a malleability of interactions within a common structural scaffold. Here, using structural data from peptide:MHC-I and pMHC:TCR structures, we first identify residues important for peptide and/or TCR binding. We then outline a fixed-backbone computational design approach for engineering synthetic molecules that combine peptide binding and TCR recognition surfaces from existing HLA allotypes. X-ray crystallography demonstrates that chimeric molecules bridging divergent HLA alleles can bind selected peptide antigens in a specified backbone conformation. Finally, in vitro tetramer staining and biophysical binding experiments using chimeric pMHC-I molecules presenting established antigens further demonstrate the requirement of TCR recognition on interactions with HLA framework residues, as opposed to interactions with peptide-centric Chimeric Antigen Receptors (CARs). Our results underscore a novel, structure-guided platform for developing synthetic HLA molecules with desired properties as screening probes for peptide-centric interactions with TCRs and other therapeutic modalities.

Decoupling peptide binding from T cell receptor recognition with engineered chimeric MHC-I molecules.,Papadaki GF, Ani O, Florio TJ, Young MC, Danon JN, Sun Y, Dersh D, Sgourakis NG Front Immunol. 2023 Jan 25;14:1116906. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1116906. , eCollection 2023. PMID:36761745^[1]

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.