It is known that the capability of our adaptive immune system to generate enormous variability in the molecules, to fight the diverse array of foreign pathogens to ward off diseases, is in part enabled by the ability to provide a diverse genetic material for the synthesis of molecules such as TCRs & BCRs. By some estimates, order of 10^18 different TCRs for humans are generated. The theoretical likelihood of the same TCR sequence being generated for two individuals is extremely low. But, there are repeated cases, in much higher frequency than theory dictates, where certain TCRs with identical sequence at both the nucleotide and the amino acid levels are present in multiple individuals. These so called public TCRs and their roles in human biology and diseases are the subject of several studies and take up a more prominent importance as we are able to look more deeply into our immune system, at the nucleotide sequences level. An interesting opinion article in Nature Reviews Immunology, 2008 by Venturi et al (“The molecular basis for public T-cell responses”) summarizes and discusses in some details the different bases for the existence of such public TCRs and their potential roles in public T-cell responses.
If one is interested in searching for certain TCR or BRC sequences in their immunoSEQ data using the immunoSEQ Analyzer tool, this can be done as illustrated below:
The capabilities of the immunoSEQ Analyzer will be updated sometime in the near future to include features that may enable you to query a batch of TCR or BCR sequences across your dataset and projects. If you have any suggestions for upgrades, please let us know at info@adaptivebiotech.com.
