Abstract
Immunology1 is not a new field of research: the first vaccinations against smallpox were done by the end of the seventeenth century by Jenner. But the practice of vaccination, although much more intricate than described in elementary textbooks, remained largely empirical. The important successes of experimental methods derived from immunology in molecular biology never had much counterpart from the theoretical point of view. Only a few models of infection, based on population dynamics, have been proposed. Until quite recently most immunologists considered that clinical conditions could be explained by the presence or absence of some specific macromolecules or cell types. Such simple approaches have in fact been sufficient to handle efficiently a number of clinical and experimental problems. It is only quite recently that the self /non-self recognition problem led N. Jerne2 to formulate his network hypothesis, and that people realized that the consequences of the hypothesis could only be checked through some effort in theoretical modeling3, 4. Before presenting our contribution let us review the important characteristics of the immune response that are indispensable to the understanding of our model.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Hood, Weissman, Wood and Wilson, Immunology, Benjamin, Menlo Park (1984).
Jerne, N. K. Towards a network theory of the immune system Ann. Immunol. (Inst. Pasteur) 125C, 373–389 (1974).
A. S. Perelson, Ed., Theoretical Immunology. SFI Studies in the Science of Complexity, Vol. III, Addison-Wesley, Redwood City, CA (1988).
Immunol. Rev., 110, issue on Immune network theory (1989).
Weisbuch G., R. de Boer and Perelson, A. S., J. Theo. Biol., to appear (1990).
A. S. Perelson, in: Cell Surface Dynamics: Concepts and Models. (Perelson, A. S., DeLisi, C. and Wiegel, F. W., Eds.) pp. 223–275. Marcel Dekker, New York (1984).
R. J. De Boer and Hogeweg, P., Bull. Math. Biol. 51, 223–246 (1989).
J. F Kearny and Vakil, M., Immunol. Rev. 94, 39–50 (1986).
D. S. Holmberg, Forgren, S., Ivars, F. and Coutinho, A., Eur. J. Imunol. 14, 435–441 (1984).
L. A. Segel and Perelson, A. S. pp. 321-344, in: Theoretical Immunology, Part Two, ed. by A. S. Perelson, Addison Wesley (1988).
Weisbuch G., J. Theor. Biol., 143(4), 507–522 (1990).
J. D. Farmer, Packard, N. H. and Perelson, A. S. Physica 22D, 187–204 (1986).
G. Parisi, pp.394-406, in: Chaos and Complexity, ed. R. Livi, S. Ruffo, S. Ciliberto and M. Buiatti, World Scientific (1988).
G. Weisbuch, pp. 53–62, in: Theories of immune networks, (Atlan, H. Ed.). Springer, Berlin (1989).
R. J. De Boer and Hogeweg, P., Bull. Math. Biol., 51, 381–408 (1989b).
A. Neumann and G. Weisbuch, submitted to Bull. Math. Biol.(1990).
J. Stewart and F. Varela, Immunol. Rev., 110, 37–61 (1989).
R. De Boer, I. G. Kevrekidis and A. S. Perelson (1990).
A. S. Perelson and G. Weisbuch (1990).
J. J. Hopfield, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 79, 2554–2558 (1982).
I. R. Cohen pp. 6–12, in: Theories of immune networks, (Atlan, H. Ed.). Springer, Berlin (1989).
R. J. De Boer, GRIND: Great Integrator Differential Equations, Bioinformatics Group, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands (1983).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1991 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Weisbuch, G. (1991). Problems in Theoretical Immunology. In: Peliti, L. (eds) Biologically Inspired Physics. NATO ASI Series, vol 263. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9483-0_23
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-9483-0_23
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4757-9485-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-4757-9483-0
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive