Discovery of T Cell Receptor β Motifs Specific to HLA–B27–Positive Ankylosing Spondylitis by Deep Repertoire Sequence Analysis

We identified TCRβ motifs that are enriched in B27-positive AS patients as compared to B27-positive healthy controls. This suggests that a common antigen, presented by HLA-B27 and detected by CD8+ T cells, may be associated with AS disease pathogenesis.