Related papers: A network model for clonal differentiation and imm…
The phenomenon of immunological memory has been known for a long time. But, the underlying mechanism is poorly understood. According to the theory of clonal selection the response to a specific invading antigen (e.g., bacteria) is offered…
Fundamental to quantitative characterization of the B cell receptor repertoire is clonal diversity - the number of distinct somatically recombined receptors present in the repertoire and their relative abundances, defining the search space…
The similarity between neural and immune networks has been known for decades, but so far we did not understand the mechanism that allows the immune system, unlike associative neural networks, to recall and execute a large number of…
The evolution of the adaptive immune system is characterized by changes in the relative abundances of the B- and T-cell clones that make up its repertoires. To fully capture this evolution, we need to describe the complex dynamics of the…
Many events in the vertebrate immune system are influenced by some element of chance. The objective of the present work is to describe affinity maturation of B lymphocytes (in which random events are perhaps the most characteristic), and to…
High-throughput sequencing of B- and T-cell receptors makes it possible to track immune repertoires across time, in different tissues, and in acute and chronic diseases or in healthy individuals. However, quantitative comparison between…
The clonal selection principle explains the basic features of an adaptive immune response to a antigenic stimulus. It established the idea that only those cells that recognize the antigens are selected to proliferate and differentiate. This…
This paper deals with a new model for clonal network dynamics. We describe in detail this model and derive special equations governing immune system dynamics based on the general gradient type principles that can be inherent to a wide class…
B cell receptors (BCRs) play a crucial role in recognizing and fighting foreign antigens. High-throughput sequencing enables in-depth sampling of the BCRs repertoire after immunization. However, only a minor fraction of BCRs actively…
A hallmark of the adaptive immune response is the proliferation of pathogen-specific lymphocytes that leave in their wake a long lived population of cells that provide lasting immunity. A subject of ongoing investigation is when during an…
Our adaptive immune system relies on the persistence over long times of a diverse set of antigen-experienced B cells to encode our memories of past infections and to protect us against future ones. While longitudinal repertoire sequencing…
The antibody repertoire of each individual is continuously updated by the evolutionary process of B cell receptor mutation and selection. It has recently become possible to gain detailed information concerning this process through…
The human immune system depends on a highly diverse collection of antibody-making B cells. B cell receptor sequence diversity is generated by a random recombination process called "rearrangement" forming progenitor B cells, then a Darwinian…
Immune repertoires rely on diversity of T-cell and B-cell receptors to protect us against foreign threats. The ability to recognize a wide variety of pathogens is linked to the number of different clonotypes expressed by an individual. Out…
Diverse T and B cell repertoires play an important role in mounting effective immune responses against a wide range of pathogens and malignant cells. The number of unique T and B cell clones is characterized by T and B cell receptors (TCRs…
We are frequently faced with a large collection of antibodies, and want to select those with highest affinity for their cognate antigen. When developing a first-line therapeutic for a novel pathogen, for instance, we might look for such…
When our immune system encounters foreign antigens (i.e., from pathogens), the B cells that produce our antibodies undergo a cyclic process of proliferation, mutation, and selection, improving their ability to bind to the specific antigen.…
We study the Langevin dynamics of the adaptive immune system, modelled by a lymphocyte network in which the B cells are interacting with the T cells and antigen. We assume that B clones and T clones are evolving in different thermal noise…
The adaptive immune system of vertebrates can detect, respond to, and memorize diverse pathogens from past experience. While the clonal selection of T helper (Th) cells is the simple and established mechanism to better recognize new…
In this work we adopt a statistical mechanics approach to investigate basic, systemic features exhibited by adaptive immune systems. The lymphocyte network made by B-cells and T-cells is modeled by a bipartite spin-glass, where, following…