MHC: Function and implication on vaccine development

The purpose of this State of the Art review is to present an overview of st ructural and functional aspects of human MHC molecules and how polymorphism s in HLA molecules determine the nature of the antigenic peptides bound and how such may impact upon rational vaccine development. The following areas pill be discussed: elements of immune recognition, class I and class II st ructure and function, the class I antigen processing pathway, class II anti gen processing and presentation, functional divergence among T-cells recogn izing class I or class LI MHC molecules, and rational vaccine development. While the first section will review our current understanding of MHC struct ure and function, the latter part will draw on my own work with Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) antigens.