A three-step kinetic mechanism for peptide binding to MHC class II proteins

Peptide binding reactions of class II MHC proteins exhibit unusual kinetics, with extremely slow apparent rate constants for the overall association (< 100 M^-1 s^-1) and dissociation (< 10^-5 s^-1) processes. Various linear and branched pathways have been proposed to account for these data. Using fluorescence resonance energy transfer between tryptophan residues in the MHC peptide binding site and aminocoumarin-labeled peptides, we measured real-time kinetics of peptide binding to empty class II MHC proteins. Our experiments identified an obligate intermediate in the binding reaction. The observed kinetics were consistent with a binding mechanism that involves an initial bimolecular binding step followed by a slow unimolecular conformational change. The same mechanism is observed for different peptide antigens. In addition, we noted a reversible inactivation of the empty MHC protein that competes with productive binding. The implications of this kinetic mechanism for intracellular antigen presentation pathways are discussed.