Antigen processing and presentation articles from across Nature Portfolio

SABR-IIs are engineered bifunctional receptors that enable CD4⁺ T cell antigen discovery.

This Perspective discusses the potential of protein structure-prediction models for exploring the structural landscape and specificity of TCR–pMHC interactions.

Abnormally expressed circular RNAs (circRNAs) represent an unexplored source of tumor-specific antigens in cancer. Here, the authors developed an immunopeptidomics workflow to identify human leukocyte antigen bound peptides specifically derived from the potential translation of these transcripts.

Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class I peptide ligands (HLAIps) are targets for developing vaccines and immunotherapies. Here the authors report Thunder-DDA-PASEF, an immunopeptidomics method which enhances the identification of vital HLAIps crucial for vaccine and immunotherapy development.

Response to immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains suboptimal, even for tumors with elevated tumor mutational burden. Here the authors generate a model of NSCLC with enhanced mutational load, showing that, while still resistant to ICIs, hypermutated tumors become sensitive to dendritic cell-targeted therapy.

Podoconiosis is triggered by long term barefoot exposure to volcanic red clay soil. Here, Negash et al characterise the immune profile of podoconiosis patients to show this disease is associated with high levels of immune activation and inflammation.

We introduce a biomimetic antigen-presenting system that uses hexapod heterostructures for specific T cell recognition at the single-molecule and single-cell levels. The system enables high-resolution T cell activation, uses magnetic forces to increase immune responses, and offers flexible and precise identification of antigen-specific T cell receptors, aiding the study of T cell recognition and immune cell mechanics.

A preprint by Kwok et al. describes the identification of common neojunction-derived antigens that could serve as targets for ‘off the shelf’ vaccines or adoptive cell therapies for patients with various types of cancer.

The immune response to dengue virus infection is a well-coordinated balancing act. New research shows that an imbalanced response — driven partially by the productive infection of antigen-presenting cells — is associated with progression to severe disease.

Hogan et al. identify a co-immunodominant influenza peptide presented in mice by MHC-E, a nonclassical class I molecule. Notably, the peptide derives from a 16-residue alternative reading frame translated by leaky ribosome scanning of the M1 mRNA and is recognized by conventional CD8⁺ T cells.

The development of immunotherapies for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) has been limited by a lack of known tumor-specific targets. A study now shows the feasibility of developing highly sensitive and selective T cell-receptor-based therapies against an HLA-A*02:01-associated peptide derived from a recurrent mutation in a subset of patients with AML.