Boots M, Donnelly R, White A
Department of Biosciences, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Cornwall Campus, Penryn, Cornwall, UK.
Department of Mathematics and the Maxwell Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK.
Parasite Immunol. 2013 Nov;35(11):331-8. doi: 10.1111/pim.12055.
There is good evidence for costs to both the uses of immune defences and their development and maintenance. The optimal defence will be a balance of these costs with the risk of infection and the virulence of the disease. It is therefore clear that the life-history characteristics of both host and parasite will impact the optimal level of defence, and that this may in part explain the variation in immune defence against different pathogens and parasites. For instance, it has traditionally been suggested that long-lived hosts should invest in immune memory. Ecological evolutionary theory can be used to examine in detail how different host characteristics will affect the optimal immune response that evolves. Here, we review theoretical studies on the impact of host lifespan on various immune defence characteristics including acquired immunity and highlight the importance of population-level epidemiological feedbacks on the outcome. In particular, we discuss when longer-lived hosts may invest less in acquired immunity and develop new theory to highlight the importance of the mechanism of host population regulation to the outcome. We finish by discussing where more theory is needed and how comparative and experimental studies may test the theory.
有充分证据表明，免疫防御的使用及其发展和维持都存在成本。最佳防御将是这些成本与感染风险和疾病毒力之间的平衡。因此很明显，宿主和寄生虫的生活史特征都会影响最佳防御水平，这可能部分解释了针对不同病原体和寄生虫的免疫防御差异。例如，传统观点认为长寿宿主应该投资于免疫记忆。生态进化理论可用于详细研究不同宿主特征如何影响进化出的最佳免疫反应。在此，我们综述了关于宿主寿命对包括获得性免疫在内的各种免疫防御特征影响的理论研究，并强调了种群水平的流行病学反馈对结果的重要性。特别是，我们讨论了长寿宿主何时可能在获得性免疫方面投入较少，并提出新理论以突出宿主种群调节机制对结果的重要性。我们最后讨论了还需要哪些理论，以及比较研究和实验研究如何检验该理论。
