Local Immunodeficiency: Combining Cross-Immunoreactivity Networks

J Comput Biol. 2023 Apr;30(4):492-501. doi: 10.1089/cmb.2022.0390. Epub 2023 Jan 10.

Abstract

This article continues the analysis of the recently observed phenomenon of local immunodeficiency (LI), which arises as a result of antigenic cooperation among intrahost viruses organized into a network of cross-immunoreactivity (CR). We study here what happens as the result of combining (connecting) the simplest CR networks, which have a stable state of LI. It turned out that many possibilities occur, particularly resulting in a change of roles of some viruses in the CR network. Our results also give some indications about a boundary of the set of CR networks with stable state of LI in the entire collection of all possible CR networks. Such borderline CR networks are characterized by only a marginally stable (neutral rather than stable) state of the LI, or by the existence of such subnetworks in a CR network that evolve independently of each other (although being connected).

Keywords: altruistic viruses; cross-immunoreactivity; local immunodeficiency; persistent viruses.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Immune System* / physiopathology
  • Immunity*
  • Viruses