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Cross-Presentation Pathway: Cytosolic vs Vacuolar Antigen Routing

Interactive 3D simulator of dendritic-cell cross-presentation: engulfed antigen races between the Sec61/proteasome/TAP cytosolic route and the cathepsin-driven vacuolar route to become surface peptide-MHC-I, exactly as competing exponential kinetics predict.

Molecular Biology3DAdvanced60 FPS📱 Mobile-adapted⇄ 2D version

Dendritic cells can display fragments of antigen they engulfed from outside the cell on MHC class I — a process called cross-presentation that lets them recruit CD8⁺ killer T cells against threats the DC itself was never infected by. This simulator renders the two documented escape routes an engulfed antigen molecule can take out of the phagosome: the cytosolic route (Sec61 translocon export → proteasome cleavage → TAP-mediated import into the ER → MHC-I loading) and the vacuolar route (direct cathepsin S degradation and MHC-I loading inside the phagosome). Each antigen particle's fate is decided by a real competing-exponential race between the two pathway rate constants, and the measured split converges on the textbook k1/(k1+k2) prediction as more antigen is processed.

⚙ Under the hood

Watch engulfed antigen inside a dendritic cell race between the Sec61/proteasome/TAP cytosolic pathway and the cathepsin-driven vacuolar pathway to become surface peptide-MHC-I, with the measured pathway split converging on the predicted competing-exponential k1/(k1+k2) formula.

immunologydendritic cellMHC class Icross-presentationcell biologykinetics

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install