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Module 2.3 · Topic 5
Module 2.3 · Topic 5
How the immune system decides which arm to send
Last lesson drew a line between extracellular and intracellular threats without explaining how the immune system actually tells them apart. The answer is remarkably literal: it's about which molecular assembly line a protein happens to travel down inside the cell.
A viral protein is being made in the cytosol of an infected cell — nowhere near the cell surface. How could any immune cell possibly find out this is happening?
A peptide derived from a cytosolic viral protein is typically presented via:
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