Computational and Mathematical Methods in Medicine
Volume 2012 (2012), Article ID 842329, 9 pages
http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/842329
Research Article

How the Interval between Prime and Boost Injection Affects the Immune Response in a Computational Model of the Immune System

F. Castiglione,1 F. Mantile,2 P. De Berardinis,3 and A. Prisco2

1Institute for Computing Applications “M. Picone”, National Research Council of Italy, via dei Taurini 19, 00185 Roma, Italy
2Institute of Genetics and Biophysics “A. Buzzati Traverso”, National Research Council of Italy, via Pietro Castellino 111, 08013 Naples, Italy
3Institute of Protein Biochemistry National Research Council of Italy, via Pietro Castellino 111, 08013 Naples, Italy

Received 15 June 2012; Accepted 23 July 2012

Academic Editor: Francesco Pappalardo

Copyright © 2012 F. Castiglione et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

The immune system is able to respond more vigorously to the second contact with a given antigen than to the first contact. Vaccination protocols generally include at least two doses, in order to obtain high antibody titers. We want to analyze the relation between the time elapsed from the first dose (priming) and the second dose (boost) on the antibody titers. In this paper, we couple in vivo experiments with computer simulations to assess the effect of delaying the second injection. We observe that an interval of several weeks between the prime and the boost is necessary to obtain optimal antibody responses.