desetope

English

Etymology

From determinant selection + -tope

Noun

desetope (plural desetopes)

1. The part of an MHC that binds to an antigen.
   • 1993, Malcolm S. Mitchell, Biological Approaches to Cancer Treatment: Biomodulation, page 110:

     Since a given peptide will fit only some desetopes, or a given desetope will bind only a limited set of peptides, there is MHC restriction on presentation of any given epitope.

   • 2012, Benvenuto Pernis, Processing and Presentation of Antigens, page 116:

     One involves determining the specificity of an apparent direct physical interaction with the antigen (desetope function), while the other involves binding to the T cell receptor (histotope function).