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Cracking the code of human T-cell immunity

Nature Biotechnology volume 31, pages 609–610 (2013)Cite this article

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Combinatorial tetramer staining coupled with mass cytometry allows simultaneous detection of T cells specific for a wide array of peptide epitopes.

The ability to identify and track cytotoxic T cells capable of recognizing particular epitopes is essential for studying human immune responses in the context of infectious diseases, cancer and autoimmunity. Yet despite the centrality of T cell–epitope interactions to the immune response, our ability to determine which epitopes are important in a given individual is extremely limited. In this issue, Newell et al.1 present an elegant approach for simultaneous detection of T cells specific for a large number of candidate epitopes. The authors apply their novel technique to define rotavirus epitopes recognized by T cells in healthy humans, but it should be applicable to identifying T cells specific for epitopes in any protein of known sequence, whether derived from a pathogen, a tumor or a candidate vaccine. The solution presented in this report therefore represents a decisive advance in human immunology.

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Figure 1: Overview of peptide-MHC tetramer multiplexing strategy with metal barcodes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Christopher J. Harvey and Kai W. Wucherpfennig are in the Department of Cancer Immunology & AIDS, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts, USA,

    Christopher J Harvey

  2. Kai W. Wucherpfennig is also in the Program in Immunology, Harvard Medical School, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.,

    Kai W Wucherpfennig

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  1. Christopher J Harvey
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  2. Kai W Wucherpfennig
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Correspondence to Kai W Wucherpfennig.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Harvey, C., Wucherpfennig, K. Cracking the code of human T-cell immunity. Nat Biotechnol 31, 609–610 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.2626

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