HIGH-SENSITIVITY, LOW-AFFINITY - PARADOX OF T-CELL RECEPTOR RECOGNITION

The recent findings demonstrating the unexpected low affinity of a T-c ell receptor towards its ligand have created a puzzle, as the high sen sitivity and exquisite specificity of T cells and the low affinity of T-cell receptors are, at first glance, not compatible features. Howeve r, the close scrutiny of the parameters of T-cell antigen recognition in the actual space where ligation events occur has revealed that the low affinity of the T-cell receptor is perfectly compatible with T-cel l function.