desetope

plural desetopes

1. The part of an MHC that binds to an antigen.

   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.

   1993, Malcolm S. Mitchell, Biological Approaches to Cancer Treatment: Biomodulation, page 110

   1 more example

   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).

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