Bioorthogonal antigens as tool for investigation of antigen processing and presentation

Pieper Pournara, L.

In order to be able to develop effective medicine and treatments to prevent or cure autoimmune diseases or cancer we need to understand the mechanisms how they arise and what drives their course.
Unravelling the fundamental molecular mechanisms influencing the onset and course of diseases such as allergies, rheumatoid arthritis or cancer can be tackled using bioorthogonal antigens – chemically functionalized proteins.
To tackle this challenge this thesis uses an inter-disciplinary approach. Combining standard immunological experimental methods with special, highly selective bioorthogonal chemical reactions. These reactions are bioorthogonal because, unlike normal organic chemistry, they are compatible with the physiological environment of a cell. This approach allows for following for example the location of the protein over time within a cell or alterations in the immune response due to disease related changes to the protein without disturbing the processes themself.
Show moreIn order to be able to develop effective medicine and treatments to prevent or cure autoimmune diseases or cancer we need to understand the mechanisms how they arise and what drives their course.
Unravelling the fundamental molecular mechanisms influencing the onset and course of diseases such as allergies, rheumatoid arthritis or cancer can be tackled using bioorthogonal antigens – chemically functionalized proteins.
To tackle this challenge this thesis uses an inter-disciplinary approach. Combining standard immunological experimental methods with special, highly selective bioorthogonal chemical reactions. These reactions are bioorthogonal because, unlike normal organic chemistry, they are compatible with the physiological environment of a cell. This approach allows for following for example the location of the protein over time within a cell or alterations in the immune response due to disease related changes to the protein without disturbing the processes themself.
This is a significant advantage because without changing the method used, new information can be retrieved from the same set of experiments, at any point in time during the process and a plethora of new readout options yielding additional data sets.
This promises new insights into the causal relation of time, localisation and factors influencing effective anti-cancer vaccine-design and cancer immunotherapy or new biological drugs to prevent or delay onset and progression of autoimmune diseases.
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Bioorthogonal antigens as tool for investigation of antigen processing and presentation