Human immune system variation

Abstract

The human immune system is highly variable between individuals but relatively stable over time within a given person. Recent conceptual and technological advances have enabled systems immunology analyses, which reveal the composition of immune cells and proteins in populations of healthy individuals. The range of variation and some specific influences that shape an individual’s immune system is now becoming clearer. Human immune systems vary as a consequence of heritable and non-heritable influences, but symbiotic and pathogenic microbes and other non-heritable influences explain most of this variation. Understanding when and how such influences shape the human immune system is key for defining metrics of immunological health and understanding the risk of immune-mediated and infectious diseases.

Phages and Immunomodulation

“…A schema of intestinal phage translocation and its protective role is shown in Figure 1. The microbiota has an important role in shaping the human immune system, for example, interindividual variation in responses to vaccines, chemotherapy and immune-modulating agents is influenced by differences in the gut microbiota [4]. This fascination with the gut microbiota shows no signs of slowing down, which is confirmed by the launch of the US National Microbiome Initiative in 2016 and similar activities worldwide [5].…”

“…This contrasts with the knowledge about the interactions of pathogenic viruses with the immune system, which is quite rich even though pathogenic viruses were described at approximately the same time as phages. Yet -as already mentioned -review articles addressing the relationship between viruses and the immune system -including the most recent one published by Nature Reviews Immunology -usually do not mention phages [4,7,8]. As rightly pointed out by a Nobel laureate Joshua Lederberg "…little is known of the interaction of bacteriophages with the mammalian host even while they are universally present… in the lower gut" [9].…”

Cancer immunotherapy: a brief review of the history, possibilities, and challenges ahead

“…The adaptive immune system generates antigen-specific T-and B-cell lymphocytes. The immune system is highly variable between individuals but relatively stable over time within a given person [22] .…”

Untitled

“…Although immunological techniques are becoming increasingly common and provide a wealth of information for serological surveillance, there is growing evidence indicating the need for novel approaches [125]. Current techniques are unable to evaluate the cell-mediated immunity and cannot be tailored to identify infection markers in a particular cell population of interest.…”