Kurzfassung

Evasion of innate and adaptive immune responses is a common feature of tumors and chronic viral infections. An active interference with the presentation of antigenic peptides by MHC class-I and -II molecules is a strategy to prevent altered-self/non-self recognition by CD8 and CD4 T cells. Downregulation and upregulation of ligands of activatory and inhibitory receptors, respectively, is a strategy to silence natural killer (NK) cells. At the innate-adaptive immunity interface, downregulation...Evasion of innate and adaptive immune responses is a common feature of tumors and chronic viral infections. An active interference with the presentation of antigenic peptides by MHC class-I and -II molecules is a strategy to prevent altered-self/non-self recognition by CD8 and CD4 T cells. Downregulation and upregulation of ligands of activatory and inhibitory receptors, respectively, is a strategy to silence natural killer (NK) cells. At the innate-adaptive immunity interface, downregulation of self and foreign lipid-presenting CD1d molecules is a means to evade invariant NKT (iNKT) cells, ‘inbetweeners’ acting as instant regulators of classically innate and adaptive immune responses.

The project aims at identifying mechanisms by which cytomegalovirus (CMV) genes modulate the immune response as well as mechanisms by which the host can regulate the expression of these CMV immune modulators. Learning how the host eventually manages to keep a chronic virus in check irrespective of its immune evasion strategies may reveal concepts of how to improve immune surveillance also of malignant cells.» weiterlesen» einklappen