Role of germinal centers for the induction of broadly-reactive memory B cells.
Journal Article (Journal Article;Review)
Virus-specific memory B cells (Bmem) play a crucial role in protecting against variant viruses. The ability to recognize these variant viruses, defined as antibody breadth, is achieved in Bmem populations by two very different pathways, germline-encoded cross-reactivity and affinity-driven, somatic evolution in germinal centers (GCs) for conserved viral epitopes. The latter class of broadly-reactive Bmem cells are not cross-reactive per se, but bind epitopes crucial for viral fitness. Although these conserved epitopes are often weakly immunogenic, the GC reaction is surprisingly permissive for the continued survival/proliferation of B cells that bind with low affinity or react to cryptic epitopes, increasing their chance of memory recruitment. In this review, we discuss the adaptive strategies of B-cell memory to viral antigenic variations.
Full Text
Duke Authors
Cited Authors
- Takahashi, Y; Kelsoe, G
Published Date
- April 2017
Published In
Volume / Issue
- 45 /
Start / End Page
- 119 - 125
PubMed ID
- 28355576
Pubmed Central ID
- 28355576
Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)
- 1879-0372
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
- 10.1016/j.coi.2017.03.002
Language
- eng
Conference Location
- England