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

作者：Toellner Kai Michael; Sze Daniel M Y; Zhang Yang

来源：Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology, 2018, 10(5): a028795.

DOI：10.1101/cshperspect.a028795

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 mu M 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.

• 出版日期2018-5