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Wen-Lang Fan [1; 2] and Meng-Shin Shiao [3] and Rosaline Chung-Yee Hui [2; 4] and Shih-Chi Su [1; 2; 4] and Chuang-Wei Wang [2] and Ya-Ching Chang [2] and Wen-Hung Chung [1; 2; 4; 5; 6]

Academic Editor: Mahboobeh Mahdavinia

1, Whole-Genome Research Core Laboratory of Human Diseases, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Keelung, Taiwan, cgmh.org.tw

2, Department of Dermatology, Drug Hypersensitivity Clinical and Research Center, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Linkou, Taipei, Taiwan, cgmh.org.tw

3, Research Center, Faculty of Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand, mahidol.ac.th

4, Chang Gung Immunology Consortium, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan, cgu.edu.tw

5, Department of Dermatology, Xiamen Chang Gung Hospital, Xiamen, China, cgmh.com.cn

6, College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan, cgust.edu.tw

Received Sep 1, 2017; Accepted Oct 24, 2017

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

1. Introduction

Major histocompatibility complex (MHC) are a group of cell surface proteins that can bind to foreign molecules in order to be recognized by corresponding T cells followed by inducting immune systems. MHC is highly conserved and presents in all vertebrate species. In human, MHC is also known as human leukocyte antigen (HLA) complex, which consists more than 200 genes on chromosome 6 and can be categorized into three subgroups: class I, class II, and class III. Class I MHC, being recognized by CD8+ T cells, consists of three main genes, that is, HLA-A, HLA-B, and HLA-C. Class II MHC, being recognized by CD4+ T cells, consists of 6 main genes, that is, HLA-DPA1, HLA-DPB1, HLA-DQA1, HLA-DQB1, HLA-DRA, and HLA-DRB1.

HLA class I molecules are expressed in almost all the cells and are responsible for presenting peptides to immune cells. Generally, old proteins in the cells will be broken down consistently in order to synthesize new peptides. Some of these broken peptide pieces attach to the MHC molecules and are further recognized by immune cells as “self.” In another situation, if a cell is infected by pathogens, pathogenic peptides attached to MHC molecules will be recognized as “nonself” and further trigger the downstream immune...

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