The Iportance of the CD8 Cell in Inmune Response

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In the paper by Fung-Lung and colleagues, it was discovered that CD8 is a molecule crucial for the development of cytotoxic T-cells. They skillfully presented the implications of their results and convincingly concluded the importance of CD8 in immune response. Through the use of knockout mice, Fung-Lung et al. were able to demonstrate that disruption of the CD8α gene impairs the cytotoxic functions of T-cells and does not affect helper T-cell functions. CD8 has been and still is being widely studied in immunologic diseases, particularly leukemia. Various studies show that CD8 plays an important role in the affects and development of specific types of leukemia. Background CD8 is a co-receptor molecule important for the activation of T-cells, found on many cells in the lymphoid system and exists in 2 forms; the αα homodimer and αβ heterodimer form. The αα homodimer is found on natural killer cells, γδ T cells, intestinal lymphocytes and some dendritic subsets. The function of the αα homodimer has not yet been clearly identified. The αβ heterodimer form is found on about 90% of killer T-cells and plays a major role in enhancing T-cell activation by increasing their sensitivity to antigens. It also stabilizes the interaction between TCR and MHC class I molecule. (Cole et al., 2012) CD8 has two subunits; α and β, both of which contain an NH2-terminal domain and a “hinge” region, which connects the NH2-terminal to the membrane-spanning region. The NH2-terminal is similar to the immunoglobulin variable domains and contains 9 beta-strands divided into 2 beta-sheets. A disulfide bridge connects the B-strand and F-stand of the CD8α subunit. There also is an intersheet connection between the B and the C strand, which suggests that eith... ... middle of paper ... ...ritish Journal of Haematology. (Early View). National Center for Biotechnology Information. (2014). CD8A molecule. National Center for Biotechnology Information. (2014). CD8B molecule. Shore, D. A., Issafras, H., Landais, E., Teyton, L., Wilson, I. A. (2008). The crystal structure of CD8 in complex with YTS156.7.7 Fab and interaction with other CD8 antibodies define binding mode of CD8αβ to MHC class I. Journal of Molecular Biology, 384(5), 1190-1202. te Raa, G. D., Pascutti, M. F., Garcia-Vallejo, J. J., Reinen, E., Remmerswaal, E. B. M., ten Berge, I. J. M., van Lier, R. A. W., Eldering, E., van Oers, M. H. J., Tonino, S. H., Kater, A. P. (2013). CMV-specific CD8+ T-cell function is not impaired in chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Blood, 123(5), 717-724. Zhang, N. & Bevan, M. J. (2011). CD8+ T cells: Foot soldiers of the immune system. Immunity, 35(2), 161-168.

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