This multivalent system allows identification and stimulation of antigen-specific T cells, thus offering a new tool to study and, in the near future, manipulate immune responses. aAPC as a tool to ...

An antigen is any substance that can spark an immune response. In many cases, an antigen is a bacterium, fungus, virus, toxin, or foreign body. But it can also be a cell that is faulty or dead.

Furthermore, induction of neoself-antigens induced lupus-like disease in mice, meaning that they mounted an immune response to the body's own tissues, thereby causing autoimmune disease." ...

During infections, the immune system needs to distinguish foreign antigens that are expressed by invading bacteria and viruses from self-antigens that are expressed by cells of the body.