Research the Literature on Your Own

• A key element of the immune response is its ability to distinguish self from non-self antigens, but sometimes, this tightly regulated process goes awry.  How is tolerance achieved, and in what ways can auto-immunity arise?
• Along similar lines, cancer is a disease involving the hyperproliferation of the body’s own cells, i.e. the antigens involved are all self.  What are some therapies that show promise in manipulating our own immune system to target cancer cells?
• Conventionally, CD4 T cells recognize extracellular antigenic peptides loaded onto MHC II molecules, while CD8 T cells recognize intracellular antigenic peptides loaded onto MHC I molecules.  However, it has been shown that CD8 T cells can also respond to extracellular antigenic peptides loaded onto MHC I molecules via cross presentation.  What are the mechanisms that drive cross presentation?