Statistical Physics of T-Cell Development and Pathogen Specificity
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Statistical physics.pdf
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Author(s)
Kosmrlj, Andrej
Kardar, Mehran
Chakraborty, Arup K
Date Issued
April 2013
Journal
Annual Review of Condensed Matter Physics
Publisher
Annual Reviews
Citation
Kosmrlj, Andrej, Mehran Kardar, and Arup K. Chakraborty. “Statistical Physics of T-Cell Development and Pathogen Specificity.” Annu. Rev. Condens. Matter Phys. 4, no. 1 (April 2013): 339–360.
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Author's final manuscript
Abstract
In addition to an innate immune system that battles pathogens in a nonspecific fashion, higher organisms, such as humans, possess an adaptive immune system to combat diverse (and evolving) microbial pathogens. Remarkably, the adaptive immune system mounts pathogen-specific responses, which can be recalled upon reinfection with the same pathogen. It is difficult to see how the adaptive immune system can be preprogrammed to respond specifically to a vast and unknown set of pathogens. Although major advances have been made in understanding pertinent molecular and cellular phenomena, the precise principles that govern many aspects of an immune response are largely unknown. We discuss complementary approaches from statistical mechanics and cell biology that can shed light on how key components of the adaptive immune system, T cells, develop to enable pathogen-specific responses against many diverse pathogens. The mechanistic understanding that emerges has implications for how host genetics may influence the development of T cells with differing responses to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Medical Engineering & Science
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biological Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Chemical Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Chemistry
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-conmatphys-030212-184325
