pMHCbased
pMHCbased refers to approaches and reagents that rely on peptide-major histocompatibility complex (pMHC) molecules to study T cell recognition and function. In these systems, specific peptide epitopes are loaded into MHC molecules and presented on cell surfaces or in soluble form as pMHC complexes. The primary applications are to identify and characterize antigen-specific T cells, monitor immune responses, and enable isolation of T cells for research or therapeutic purposes. pMHCbased methods apply to both major T cell subsets: MHC class I–restricted CD8+ T cells and MHC class II–restricted CD4+ T cells.
Key reagents include soluble pMHC monomers and multimeric complexes such as tetramers and dextramers, typically formed
Applications span immune monitoring in infectious diseases and vaccination, cancer immunotherapy, and basic T cell biology.