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Shape recognition

How synthetic molecules mimicking natural antigens could lead to oral vaccines

April 12, 2018 7:41 PM UTC

A Cardiff University team has engineered a D-peptide that mimicked the T cell agonist activity of an influenza peptide and protected mice from infection by the virus. The findings suggest oral vaccines based on synthetic T cell-targeting molecules could elicit immune responses comparable to natural antigens.

Because T cell receptors (TCRs) recognize millions of unique, naturally occurring peptides, Andrew Sewell, author of the March study in The Journal of Clinical Investigation, hypothesized they might recognize and respond to non-natural ligands with chemistries similar to the natural peptides. Sewell is professor at Cardiff University School of Medicine’s Division of Infection and Immunity...