Monday, March 4, 2019 Not Your Mother's Molecules: Researchers Mull Clinical Potential of "Unconventional" Immune Cells Before the immune system can mount a protective response against a disease-causing pathogen, proteins known as major histocompatibility complex, or MHC, molecules must present immune cells with a pathogen portion. Most studies to date have focused on MHC class I or II molecules that present protein fragments, but immunologists have identified several so-called nonclassical MHC molecules and "unconventional" T cells that employ other methods of presenting foreign material to the immune system. A new report from PLOS Pathogens summarizes a 2017 NIAID-sponsored workshop in which researchers shared the current understanding of such alternative mechanisms and considered how they may be exploited to develop novel vaccines against HIV, tuberculosis and cancer. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases  |  National Institutes of Health Update your subscriptions, modify your password or e-mail address, or stop subscriptions at any time on your Subscriber Preferences Page. You will need to use your e-mail address to log in. If you have questions or problems with the subscription service, please contact subscriberhelp.govdelivery.com. This service is provided to you at no charge by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). This email was sent to myhcistech.healthnews360@blogger.com using GovDelivery Communications Cloud on behalf of: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases · 5601 Fishers Lane · Bethesda, MD 20892 · 1-866-284-4107