Related papers: Towards a quantitative theory of tolerance
An improved version of the symmetrical immune network theory is presented, in which killing is ascribed to IgM antibodies, while IgG antibodies are stimulatory. A recurring theme in the symmetrical network theory is the concept of…
The adaptive immune system constantly remodels its lymphocyte repertoire for better protection against future pathogens. Its ability to improve antigen recognition on the fly relies on somatic mutation and selective expansion of B…
A prediction interval covers a future observation from a random process in repeated sampling, and is typically constructed by identifying a pivotal quantity that is also an ancillary statistic. Analogously, a tolerance interval covers a…
The adaptive immune system is a natural diagnostic and therapeutic. It recognizes threats earlier than clinical symptoms manifest and neutralizes antigen with exquisite specificity. Recognition specificity and broad reactivity is enabled…
The ability of the adaptive immune system to respond to arbitrary pathogens stems from the broad diversity of immune cell surface receptors (TCRs). This diversity originates in a stochastic DNA editing process (VDJ recombination) that acts…
The progression of a cell population where each individual is characterized by the value of an internal variable varying with time (e.g. size, weight, and protein concentration) is typically modeled by a Population Balance Equation, a first…
Regulatory T cells (Treg) have recently been identified as playing a central role in allergy and during allergen-specific immunotherapy. We have extended our previous mathematical model describing the nonlinear dynamics of Th1-Th2…
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 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…
Simple ideas, endowed from the mathematical theory of control, are used in order to analyze in general grounds the human immune system. The general principles are minimization of the pathogen load and economy of resources. They should…
In order to target threatening pathogens, the adaptive immune system performs a continuous reorganization of its lymphocyte repertoire. Following an immune challenge, the B cell repertoire can evolve cells of increased specificity for the…
The role of T-cells within the immune system is to confirm and assess anomalous situations and then either respond to or tolerate the source of the effect. To illustrate how these mechanisms can be harnessed to solve real-world problems, we…
The vertebrate immune system is a wonder of modern evolution. Occasionally, however, correlations within the immune system lead to inappropriate recruitment of preexisting T cells against novel viral diseases. We present a random energy…
Naive human T cells are produced in the thymus, which atrophies abruptly and severely in response to physical or psychological stress. To understand how an instance of stress affects the size and "diversity" of the peripheral naive T cell…
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…
A central feature of vertebrate immune response is affinity maturation, wherein antibody-producing B cells undergo evolutionary selection in microanatomical structures called germinal centers, which form in secondary lymphoid organs upon…
To recognize pathogens, B and T lymphocytes are endowed with a wide repertoire of receptors generated stochastically by V(D)J recombination. Measuring and estimating the diversity of these receptors is of great importance for understanding…
Serology testing can identify past infection by quantifying the immune response of an infected individual providing important public health guidance. Individual immune responses are time-dependent, which is reflected in antibody…
This paper investigates dynamic behaviors of the tumor-immune system perturbed by environmental noise. The model describes the response of the cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) to the growth of an immunogenic tumour. The main methods are…
The study of immune system aging, i.e. immunosenescence, is a relatively new research topic. It deals with understanding the processes of immunodegradation that indicate signs of functionality loss possibly leading to death. Even though it…