Conditions for pathogen elimination by immune systems
Tipo
Artigo
Data de publicação
2004
Periódico
Theory in Biosciences
Citações (Scopus)
8
Autores
Chaui-Berlinck J.G.
Barbuto J.A.M.
Monteiro L.H.A.
Barbuto J.A.M.
Monteiro L.H.A.
Orientador
Título da Revista
ISSN da Revista
Título de Volume
Membros da banca
Programa
Resumo
A continuous harvest effort can lead a population to extinction. How an "unconscious" immune system would perpetrate such an effort in order to eliminate a self-replicating antigen (a pathogen) becomes an intriguing problem if the system responses are functions of the pathogen population: the responses cannot be a continuous effort as the pathogen vanishes. On theoretical grounds, we show some qualities an immune response must have to support pathogen elimination. Then, three specific mechanisms are addressed: a pathogen-independent positive feedback loop among the responding cells of the system (e.g., B-lymphocyte and T-helper); the persistence of antigen bound to presenting cells; and the programmed expansion/ contraction of a pool of responding cells. The maintenance of responding cells due to these mechanisms is the essential feature to the effective clearance of self-replicating agents. Thus, evolutionarily, the primary function of a helper lymphocyte would be to amplify a response and the primary function of memory would be the very elimination of pathogens. © 2004 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.