Sequence Space Localization in the Immune System Response to Vaccination and Disease
Statistical Mechanics
2007-05-23 v1 Populations and Evolution
Abstract
We introduce a model of protein evolution to explain limitations in the immune system response to vaccination and disease. The phenomenon of original antigenic sin, wherein vaccination creates memory sequences that can \emph{increase} susceptibility to future exposures to the same disease, is explained as stemming from localization of the immune system response in antibody sequence space. This localization is a result of the roughness in sequence space of the evolved antibody affinity constant for antigen and is observed for diseases with high year-to-year mutation rates, such as influenza.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0308613,
title = {Sequence Space Localization in the Immune System Response to Vaccination and Disease},
author = {Michael W. Deem and Ha Youn Lee},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0308613},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
5 pages, 2 figures