RT Journal Article
T1 The growth threshold conjecture: a theoretical framework for understanding T-cell tolerance
A1 Arias, Clemente F.
A1 Herrero, Miguel A.
A1 Cuesta, José A.
A1 Acosta Salmerón, Francisco Javier
A1 Fernández Arias, Cristina
AB Adaptive immune responses depend on the capacity of T cells to target specific antigens. As similar antigens can be expressed by pathogens and host cells, the question naturally arises of how can T cells discriminate friends from foes. In this work, we suggest that T cells tolerate cells whose proliferation rates remain below a permitted threshold. Our proposal relies on well-established facts about T-cell dynamics during acute infections: T-cell populations are elastic (they expand and contract) and they display inertia (contraction is delayed relative to antigen removal). By modelling inertia and elasticity, we show that tolerance to slow-growing populations can emerge as a population-scale feature of T cells. This result suggests a theoretical framework to understand immune tolerance that goes beyond the self versus non-self dichotomy. It also accounts for currently unexplained observations, such as the paradoxical tolerance to slow-growing pathogens or the presence of self-reactive T cells in the organism.
PB Royal Society (London)
SN ESSN: 2054-5703
YR 2015
FD 2015-07-01
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/23565
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/23565
LA eng
NO Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO)
DS Docta Complutense
RD 7 abr 2025