Quorum sensing allows T cells to discriminate between self and nonself
Name
Butler-2013-Quorum sensing allow.pdf
Size
224.42 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
b5097665e6351efcd19eda2d88065a81
Author(s)
Butler, Thomas Charles
Kardar, Mehran
Chakraborty, Arup K
Date Issued
July 2013
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Publisher
National Academy of Sciences (U.S.)
Citation
Butler, T. C., M. Kardar, and A. K. Chakraborty. “Quorum Sensing Allows T Cells to Discriminate Between Self and Nonself.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 110, no. 29 (July 16, 2013): 11833–11838.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
T cells orchestrate pathogen-specific adaptive immune responses by identifying peptides derived from pathogenic proteins that are displayed on the surface of infected cells. Host cells also display peptide fragments from the host’s own proteins. Incorrectly identifying peptides derived from the body’s own proteome as pathogenic can result in autoimmune disease. To minimize autoreactivity, immature T cells that respond to self-peptides are deleted in the thymus by a process called negative selection. However, negative selection is imperfect, and autoreactive T cells exist in healthy individuals. To understand how autoimmunity is yet avoided, without loss of responsiveness to pathogens, we have developed a model of T-cell training and response. Our model shows that T cells reliably respond to infection and avoid autoimmunity because collective decisions made by the T-cell population, rather than the responses of individual T cells, determine biological outcomes. The theory is qualitatively consistent with experimental data and yields a criterion for thymic selection to be adequate for suppressing autoimmunity.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Medical Engineering & Science
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biological Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Chemical Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Chemistry
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1222467110
