Immunobiology Of Proteins And Peptides Vi

The articles in this volume represent papers delivered by invited speakers at the 6th International Symposium on the Immunobiology of Proteins and Peptides. In addition, a few of the abstracts submitted by participants were scheduled for minisymposia and some of the authors, whose presentations were judged by the Scientific Council to be of high quality, were invited to submit papers for publication in this volume. This symposium was established in 1976 for the purpose of bringing together, once every two or three years, active investigators in the forefront of contemporary immunology, to present their findings and discuss t heir significance in the light of current concepts and to identify important new directions of investigation. The founding of the symposium was stimulated by the achievement of major breakthroughs in the understanding of the immune recognition of proteins and peptides. We believed that these breakthroughs will lead to the creation of a new generation of peptide reagents which should have enormous potential in biological, therapeutic and basic applications. This anticipated explosion has in fact since occurred and many applications of these pep tides are now being realized.

The immune response is largely dependent on molecular inter actions involving proteins. The recognition of antigen molecules, whether they are proteins or non-proteins, whether they are self or non-self, takes place at the molecular-cellular interface through membrane receptor molecules that are proteins. The initial step of recognition activates a complex series of cellular events requiring some mechanism of cell-cell interactions and communi cations, eventually leading to antibody production. This biolo gical cascade is controlled at several positions along its con secutive pathways by protein molecules, either in the free form or as receptors on membranes of cells committed to this activity. Clearly, then, the proper understanding of the response by cells of the immune system will depend, to a great measure, on the definition of the molecular events involving protein interactions. Obviously, cells work via molecules and molecules work via cells and, at this level of functional resolution, molecular immunology and cellular immunology will merge and will depend heavily on protein chemistry.

One of the central questions in immunology is the understanding in molecular terms of antigen-antibody interactions and of the cellu lar recognition of antigens. It is hoped that this understanding will extend eventually to the immunobiological basis of host defense to infectious agents and of tissue damage or deranged cell functions which stem from these reactions. A variety of natural and artificial substances have been used as models for these studies. Emphasis was placed upon substances of known and relatively uncomplicated chemical structures. These included polysaccharides, amino acid polymers, nu cleic acids and haptens. On the other hand. until recently there has been very little information on protein antigens. The complexity of these molecules posed an immense chemical obstacle to precise immuno chemical analysis. Indeed, it is this difficulty with proteins that spurred the synthesis and immunological studies of amino acid poly mers. The control and normal regulation of the immune system at the cellular-molecular interface and the great majority of antigens asso ciated with immune disorders are attributed to protein molecules. In the last few years great advances have been made in the analysis and synthesis of the antigenic sites of some proteins. The entire antigenic structures of myoglobin and lysozyme and the partial anti genic structures of several other proteins have been determined. Moreover, in the past seven years several biological responses resulting from the reactions of proteins and their peptides with cells of the immune system were described.

This symposium was established in 1976 for the purpose of bringing to gether once every two or three years, active investigators in the fore front of contemporary immunology, to present their findings and to discuss their significance in the light of current concepts and to identify important new directions of investigation. The founding of the symposium was stimulated by the achievement of major breakthroughs in the under standing of the immune recognition of proteins and peptides. We believed that these breakthroughs will lead to the creation of a new generation of peptides which should have enormous potential in biological, therapeutic and basic applications. This anticipated explosion has finally occurred and many applications of these peptides are now being realized. The main symposia topics of the fourth symposium were: T-cell recognition of proteins, structure and function of the T-cell receptor, presentation of protein antigens, recycling and activation of membrane receptor molecules, Ir-gene control of T-cell responses and methods of cell separation. The molecular features recognized by antibodies on proteins were the first immune recognition sites to be local ized and confirmed by synthetic peptides. The complete antigenic structures of several proteins have been defined, and individual antigenic sites have been described on many more proteins. More recently, major breakthroughs have been reported in the immune recognition of proteins by T cells.

This volume summarizes the proceedings of the Eighth International Symposium on the Immunobiology of Proteins and Peptides which was held on November 16-20 in Rio Rico, Arizona. The articles represent papers by invited speakers as well as papers selected by the Scientific Council, from among those submitted by the participants, on the basis of quality and timeliness. This symposium series was established in 1976 for the purpose of bringing together, once every two or three years, active investigators in the forefront of contemporary immunology, to present their findings, discuss their significance in the light of current concepts and identify important new directions of investigation. The founding of the symposium was stimulated by the achievement of major breakthroughs in the understanding of the immune recognition of proteins and peptides. We believed that these breakthroughs would lead to the creation of a new generation of peptide reagents, which could have enormous potential in biological, therapeutic, and basic applications. This anticipated explosion has since occurred and many applications ofthese peptides are now being realized. The eighth symposium focused on the manipulation or modulation of the immune response. This volume broadly covers the areas of adjuvants, cytokines, vaccines, and the use of intravenous immunoglobulins for disease management. There is a clear need to identify methods for improving vaccine efficacy and guiding the host to respond with a particular type of immune response.

This symposia series, founded in 1976, is devoted to the advancement and dissemination of knowledge in the field in immunology, particularly as it relates to the immune recognition and responses to protein and peptide antigens. Leading investigators are convened every 2 or 3 years for the purpose of consolidating the research on protein and peptide antigens of defined structure and to focus on these findings in the context of contemporary immunology. Each symposium has focussed on a particular aspect of molecular and cellular immunology of proteins and peptides. It is extremely gratifying that, in the last 2-3 years, the scientific community has shown a heightened interest in the study and understanding of protein and peptide antigens. The third symposium was devoted to viral and bacterial antigens. Great advances have been made in recent years in the elucidation and synthesis of protein antigenic sites. These, together with advances in cloning, expression and sequencing of protein genes, have offered new avenues for the preparation of synthetic vaccines for viral, bacterial and other antigens. Such vaccines have been the aspiration of immunologists for over 20 years. The meeting has served to integrate and correlate the current knowledge of these systems with developing trends in immunology and to identify the most promising new directions for future investigations.

The articles in this volume represent papers delivered by invited speakers at the 7th International Symposium on the Immunobiology of Proteins and Peptides. In addition, a few of the abstracts submitted by participants were scheduled for minisymposia and some of the authors, whose presentations were judged by the Scientific Council to be of high quality, were invited to submit papers for publication in this volume. This symposium was established in 1976 for the purpose of bringing together, once every two or three years, active investigators in the forefront of contemporary immunology, to present their findings and discuss their significance in the light of current concepts and to identify important new directions of investigation. The founding of the symposium was stimulated by the achievement of major breakthroughs in the understanding of the immune recognition of proteins and peptides. We believed that these breakthroughs will lead to the creation of a new generation of peptide reagents which should have enormous potential in biological, therapeutic, and basic applications. This anticipated explosion has in fact since occurred and many applications of these peptides are now being realized. The seventh symposium focused on immune responses that have undesirable effects on the host, hence we named them unwanted immune responses. Two major aspects of unwanted immune responses were discussed at the symposium: Allergy and Autoimmunity.