arXiv · cond-mat/0308613
Sequence Space Localization in the Immune System Response to Vaccination and Disease
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.
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Michael W. Deem, Ha Youn Lee. 2003-08-29. Sequence Space Localization in the Immune System Response to Vaccination and Disease. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.91.068101
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