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Mathematical modeling provides kinetic details of the human immune response to vaccination.

Authors :
Le D
Miller JD
Ganusov VV
Source :
Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology [Front Cell Infect Microbiol] 2015 Jan 09; Vol. 4, pp. 177. Date of Electronic Publication: 2015 Jan 09 (Print Publication: 2014).
Publication Year :
2015

Abstract

With major advances in experimental techniques to track antigen-specific immune responses many basic questions on the kinetics of virus-specific immunity in humans remain unanswered. To gain insights into kinetics of T and B cell responses in human volunteers we combined mathematical models and experimental data from recent studies employing vaccines against yellow fever and smallpox. Yellow fever virus-specific CD8 T cell population expanded slowly with the average doubling time of 2 days peaking 2.5 weeks post immunization. Interestingly, we found that the peak of the yellow fever-specific CD8 T cell response was determined by the rate of T cell proliferation and not by the precursor frequency of antigen-specific cells as has been suggested in several studies in mice. We also found that while the frequency of virus-specific T cells increased slowly, the slow increase could still accurately explain clearance of yellow fever virus in the blood. Our additional mathematical model described well the kinetics of virus-specific antibody-secreting cell and antibody response to vaccinia virus in vaccinated individuals suggesting that most of antibodies in 3 months post immunization were derived from the population of circulating antibody-secreting cells. Taken together, our analysis provided novel insights into mechanisms by which live vaccines induce immunity to viral infections and highlighted challenges of applying methods of mathematical modeling to the current, state-of-the-art yet limited immunological data.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
2235-2988
Volume :
4
Database :
MEDLINE
Journal :
Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
25621280
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.3389/fcimb.2014.00177