Mass spectrometric applications in immunoproteomics

The mammalian immune system is a complex set of molecular and cellular responses that have evolved to protect the body from pathological changes. In most cases the recognition of these changes is fundamentally centered around the specific recognition of foreign molecules from pathogens or neoantigens found in cancerous cells. When a pathogenic change occurs, there is an initial response facilitated by the innate immune response, followed shortly after by the adaptive (or cellular) immune response, which combats infection or malignancy in an antigen specific manner.