Humoral and cellular immune response are parts of one whole

[gsgs]

Re: Humoral and cellular immune response are parts of one whole

I recently did a calculation, how many different variants of a gene
are needed to build a web such that every other variant at
genbank is within 5% of the nearest web-sample :

PB2:8
PB1:4
PB1-F2:282
PA:7
HA:167
NP:13
NA:169
M2:103
M1:16
NS2:37
NS1:108

that might demonstrate how much more suitable e.g. PB1 should be for epitopes rather than HA



I also downloaded about 1100 flu-epitopes from IEDB.
For each new virus we should list the matching epitopes...

[Mingus]

Re: Humoral and cellular immune response are parts of one whole

I'm happy you take your time to talk to us about immunology Dr.Gänseepel
This is a yet poorly understood part of our biology, so much remain to discover.

For a pedagogic purpose here is a definition of epitope.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epitope

An epitope is the part of a macromolecule that is recognized by the immune system, specifically by antibodies, B cells, or cytotoxic T cells.
(...)
Most epitopes recognized by antibodies or B cells can be thought of as three-dimensional surface features of an antigen molecule; these features fit precisely and thus bind to antibodies. The part of an antibody that recognizes the epitope is called a paratope.

While we wait for the next part of you reflexion & explanation
here is a shematics of the majors immune cells kind.


Each one of those immune cells differentiate themselves from the original immune stem cell.
As they differentiate themselves, they gain in specialisation.
Every kind of theses play a specific role in the immune response.
Every ones react & produce a different cocktail of chemokines.

[JJackson]

Re: Humoral and cellular immune response are parts of one whole

Thanks, nice explanation.

[Ganseerpel]

In terms of immune response to influenza A, interest has been focussed so far mainly on humoral antibodies against certain epitopes on the viral HA. Current vaccine strategy is based on antigens derived from viral HA as stimulus for Ab secretion. Humoral anti HA and NA abs bind only to a very small spectrum of HAs within one viral serotype. Cross reactivity to different strains is a rare event and does normally not occur. As in influenza viruses the involved peptide fragments (epitopes) are in a region of the molecule which is not associated with viral function, mutations are found frequently und do not compromise viral fitness.
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However, little attention has been paid to the potential of cell mediated protection (TCMI). TCMI is more species-specific, less protective and involves a great deal of complicated and still poorly understood mecanisms ? but as it (at least in part ) emcompasses conserved domains involved in viral function on all 11 genes ?it is not restricted to a given serotype and less susceptible to mutations.
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As most of the experimental research has been done under lab conditions and grounds on animal models, most of the findings are not 1:1 transferable to ?real world? circumstances.

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Under environmental conditions, organisms develop a multitude of overlapping species-specific and individual immune reactions which differ considerably from those under lab conditions. These influences may account for the difficulty to assess the evolution of the current epidemic.
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More than 600 epitopes have yet been identified. It will take time to find out which of them will prove to be of practical significance.

Best possible protection requires the full functionality, interaction and cooperation of all compartments of the immune system
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Thank you for opening this subforum.<o:p></o:p>