Control of immunodominance

Patent Pending Immunodominance is the immunological phenomenon in which immune responses are mounted against only a few of the antigenic peptides out of the many produced.[1] That is, despite multiple allelic variations of MHC molecules and multiple peptides presented on antigen presenting cells, the immune response is skewed to only specific combinations of the two.[1] Immunodominance is evident for both antibody-mediated immunity and cell-mediated immunity.[2][3] Epitopes that are not targeted or targeted to a lower degree during an immune response are known as subdominant epitopes.