Journal Article

Requirement of immune system heterogeneity for protective immunity

Durlanik, Sibel, Thiel, Andreas

2015

Overview

Although our knowledge on the immune system and immunological memory has expanded enormously during the last decades, the development of strategies to induce robust protective memory against infections and tumors remains challenging. Intense efforts and immense resources have been put into the development of vaccines. However, effective tools to assess protective immunity, beyond neutralizing antibody titers and cytotoxic T cell activity, are still missing. Previous trials have primarily focused on individual cell subsets to induce and maintain protection while current research emphasizes the importance of functional heterogeneity and necessity of efficient communication within the immunological network. In this review, established knowledge as well as current perspectives on protective immunological memory will be discussed comprehensively.

• Publisher: Elsevier Ltd,Elsevier Limited
• Subject: Allergy and Immunology / Antigens / CD8+ T helper/inducer cells / Cytokines / Cytotoxicity / Dendritic cells / Development strategies / Gangrene / Heterogeneity / Humans / Immune system / Immunity - genetics / Immunologic Memory / Immunological protection / Infections / Inflammation / Lymphocytes / neoplasms / neutralizing antibodies / Rodents / Studies / T cell receptors / T cells / T-lymphocytes / T-Lymphocytes, Cytotoxic - immunology / T-Lymphocytes, Helper-Inducer - immunology / vaccine development / Vaccines / Vaccines - immunology