Superantigens: A Pathogen’s View of the Immune System

Superantigens are microbial products that defy the conventional notion of lymphocyte activation to produce an unusually vigorous, genetically unrestricted response among many subsets of antigen-specific T cells. Bacterial toxins and certain viral gene products behave as superantigens, deleting T cells in vivo and stimulating their proliferation in vitro. These observations raise many fascinating questions about the nature of T-cell activation and microbial pathogenesis. This volume is an up-to-date, wide-ranging examination of the function and significance of superantigens in virology, biochemistry, and cell and stuctural biology as well as immunology. The book will interest graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in a wide range of biomedical sciences.