Gupta S, Anderson R M
Wellcome Trust Centre for the Epidemiology of Infectious Disease in the Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, UK OX1 3PS.
Parasitol Today. 1999 Dec;15(12):497-501. doi: 10.1016/s0169-4758(99)01559-8.
Sunetra Gupta and Roy Anderson discuss how the balance between host immune responses against conserved and variable antigens shapes the population structure of pathogens. At one extreme, immune selection against polymorphic determinants can cause pathogen populations to self-organize spontaneously into discrete antigenic types that may either be maintained over long periods or undergo cyclical or chaotic fluctuations. At the other extreme, diversity may be drastically reduced by competition induced by a strong immune response against a conserved determinant. Where does each pathogen lie along this continuum? How would this knowledge influence our attempts to control an infectious disease?
苏内特拉·古普塔和罗伊·安德森探讨了宿主针对保守抗原和可变抗原的免疫反应之间的平衡如何塑造病原体的种群结构。在一个极端情况下，针对多态性决定簇的免疫选择会导致病原体种群自发地自我组织成离散的抗原类型，这些类型可能会长期维持，或者经历周期性或混沌波动。在另一个极端情况下，针对保守决定簇的强烈免疫反应所引发的竞争可能会使多样性大幅降低。每种病原体在这个连续统一体上处于什么位置？这些知识将如何影响我们控制传染病的努力？
