Nature Communications, Published online: 11 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s41467-026-76387-6 Platelet Factor 4 (PF4) is a chemokine involved in several physiological processes. Ma et al. discovered that an allosteric switch exposes cryptic PF4 epitopes, suggesting that stabilizing non-immunogenic conformations of self-proteins may suppress autoimmune responses.
A cryptic symmetry switch allosterically controls how the PF4 self-protein turns into a pathogenic antigen
Giuseppe Melacini