TKD (450-463) – Immunology – Antigens/Epitotes/Pools/Librairies

Heat shock proteins (Hsps) are highly conserved and stress inducible. Hsp70 has been found in tumour cell lines to be highly expressed with a higher plasma membrane localisation. This is correlated to the cell sensitivity to natural killer (NK) cell-mediated lysis. Investigation identified that Hsp70 N-terminal extended peptide TKD (450-463) was critical for this to occur. TKD (450-463) with low dose interleukin (IL-2) has the same capacity to induce NK cell proliferation and activity as the full-length protein Hsp70. Excess of Hsp70 and TKD (450-463) both inhibit cytolytic activity by NK cells. Other related sequences tested did not lead to NK cell-mediated lysis. Further study with the TKD (450-463) epitope could elucidate how NK cells are activated by Hsp70s as the mechanism remains unclear.