What Are the Primary Limitations in B-Cell Affinity Maturation, and How Much Affinity Maturation Can We Drive with Vaccination? | Zendy

KaiMichael Toellner | Zendy; Daniel Sze | Zendy; Yang Zhang | Zendy

Open Access

What Are the Primary Limitations in B-Cell Affinity Maturation, and How Much Affinity Maturation Can We Drive with Vaccination?

Author(s) -

KaiMichael Toellner,

Daniel Sze,

Yang Zhang

Publication year - 2017

Publication title -

cold spring harbor perspectives in biology

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Journals

SCImago Journal Rank - 6.011

H-Index - 173

ISSN - 1943-0264

DOI - 10.1101/cshperspect.a028795

Subject(s) - epitope , biology , affinity maturation , microbiology and biotechnology , antibody , immune system , antigen , b cell , receptor , monoclonal antibody , immunology , biochemistry

We discuss the impact of antibody feedback on affinity maturation of B cells. Competition from epitope-specific antibodies produced earlier during the immune response leads to immune complex formation, which is essential for transport and deposition of antigen onto follicular dendritic cells (FDCs). It also reduces the concentration of free epitopes into the μm to nm range, which is essential for B-cell receptors (BCRs) to sense affinity-dependent changes in binding capacity. Antibody feedback may also induce epitope spreading, leading to a broader selection of epitopes recognized by newly emerging B-cell clones. This may be exploitable, providing ways to manipulate epitope usage induced by vaccination.

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