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Evidence for a viral superantigen in humans

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Abstract

SUPERANTIGENS1–4 bind class II major histocompatibility pro-teins5,6 and stimulate powerful proliferative responses of T lymphocytes bearing particular Vβ sequences as part of their αβ antigen receptor7. Exogenous bacterial superantigens are respon-sible for food poisoning and toxic shock syndrome. Murine virus-encoded self-superantigens induce clonal deletion of T lym-phocytes. Although superantigen-like properties have been suggested for human immunodeficiency virus-1, no viral superantigen has been identified in humans8. Here we report that the nucleocapsid of the rabies virus is an exogenous superantigen specific for Vβ8 human T lymphocytes which binds to HLA class II α-chains.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Unite de la Rage, Institut Pasteur, 25-28 rue du Docteur Roux, 75724, Paris, cedex 15, France

    Monique Lafon, Mireille Lafage & Amalia Martinez-Arends

  2. Unité delmmunohématologie et d'lmmunopathologie, Institut Pasteur, 25-28 rue du Docteur Roux, 75724, Paris, cedex 15, France

    Françoise Vuillier & Daniel Scott-Algara

  3. Laboratoire d'lmmunogénétique, Institut Biomédical des Cordeliers, 15 rue de I'Ecole de Médecine, 75006, Paris, France

    Rafaël Ramirez, Dominique Charron & Vincent Lotteau

Authors
  1. Monique Lafon
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  2. Mireille Lafage
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  3. Amalia Martinez-Arends
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  4. Rafaël Ramirez
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  5. Françoise Vuillier
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  6. Dominique Charron
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  7. Vincent Lotteau
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  8. Daniel Scott-Algara
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Lafon, M., Lafage, M., Martinez-Arends, A. et al. Evidence for a viral superantigen in humans. Nature 358, 507–510 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1038/358507a0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/358507a0

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