Conventional wisdom lays out two major roles for the major histocompatibility complex (MHC): Class I MHC (MHC-I) displays peptide fragments of proteins from within the cell on the cell surface and elicits a response from cytotoxic T cells (CD8 T cells), and class II MHC (MHC-II) does the same for helper T cells (CD4 T cells). Together, these two classes of MHC molecules are known as «classical» MHC molecules and have been understood to drive most of the immune response when a host is infected by a pathogen.
Researchers show ‘cryptic’ viral peptide drives large part of immune response in influenza A virus infection
Conventional wisdom lays out two major roles for the major histocompatibility complex (MHC): Class I MHC (MHC-I) displays peptide fragments of proteins from within the cell on the cell surface and elicits a response from cytotoxic T cells (CD8 T cells), and class II MHC (MHC-II) does the same for helper T cells (CD4 T cells). Together, these two classes of MHC molecules are known as "classical" MHC molecules and have been understood to drive most of the immune response when a host is infected by a pathogen.