An important mammalian defence strategy against intracellular pathogens is the presentation of cytoplasmically derived short peptides by major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules to cytotoxic T lymphocytes. MHC class I molecules assemble in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) with chaperones, including calnexin and calreticulin, before binding to the transporter associated with antige...

In this paper we propose a new solution for mobile payments called Tap2 technology. To use it, users need only their NFC-enabled mobile phones and credentials implemented on their smart cards. An NFC device acts like a bridge between service providers and secure elements and the secure credentials (on the card) are never revealed. In this way, secure authentication can be obtained by means of a...

Dengue virus (DV) infection demonstrates an intriguing virus-induced intracellular membrane alteration that results in the augmentation of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I-restricted antigen presentation. As oppose to its biological function in attracting CD8(+) T-cells, this phenomenon appears to facilitate the immune evasion. However, the molecular events that attribute to the d...

Dendritic cells (DCs) express several receptors for the Fc portion of immunoglobulin (Ig)G (FcgammaR), which mediate internalization of antigen-IgG complexes (immune complexes, ICs) and promote efficient major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II-restricted antigen presentation. We now show that FcgammaRs have two additional specific attributes in murine DCs: the induction of DC maturation...

The HLA region has long been implicated in sporadic and familial Hodgkin disease (HD), with recent case-control studies suggesting that HLA class II loci predispose to sporadic nodular sclerosis HD (NSHD). To determine whether this predisposition extends to familial HD, HLA class II loci (DRB1, DQA1, DQB1, DRB3, DRB4, and DRB5) and transporter associated with antigen processing (TAP) loci (TAP1...

Tapasin organizes the peptide-loading complex (PLC) by recruiting peptide-receptive MHC class I (MHC-I) and accessory chaperones to the N-terminal regions of the TAP subunits TAP1 and TAP2. Despite numerous studies have shown that the formation of the PLC is essential to facilitate proper MHC-I loading, the molecular architecture of this complex is still highly controversial. We studied the sto...