Talk:Antigenic escape

1.) Allen, Clint T., Clavijo, Paul E., Waes, Carter Van, and Zhong Chen. (2015). Anti-Tumor Immunity in Head and Neck Cancer: Understanding the Evidence, How Tumors Escape and Immunotherapeutic Approaches. Cancers, Vol. 7. Pg. 2397-2414.

4.) Barnett, Timothy C., Lim, Jin Yan, Soderholm, Amelia T., Rivera-Hernandex, Tania, West, Nicholas P., and Mark J Walker. (2015). Host-Pathogen Interaction During Bacterial Vaccination. Current Opinion in Immunology, Vol. 36. Pg. 1-7.

3.) Cnops, Jennifer, Magez, Stefan, and Carl De Trez. (2015). Escape Mechanisms of African Trypanosomes: Why Trypanosomosis Is Keeping Us Awake. Parisitology, Vol. 142. Pg. 417-427.

5.) Barry, Alyssa E., and Alicia Arnott. (2014). Stategies for Designing and Monitoring Malaria Vaccines Targeting Diverse Antigens. Fronteirs in Immunology, Vol. 5. Pg. 1-16.

2.) Hanada, Katsuhiro, and Yoshio Yamaoka. (2014). Genetic Battle Between Helicobacter pylori and humans. The Mechanism Underlying Homologous Recombination in Bacteria, Which Can Infect Human Cells. Microbes and Infection, Vol. 16. Pg. 833-839.Immcarle12 (talk) 19:57, 6 February 2016 (UTC)

Antigenic escape occurs when the immune system is unable to respond to an infectious agent. This process can occur in a number of different mechanism of both genetic and environmental nature.[1] Such mechanisms include homologous recombination, and manipulation and resistance of the host's immune responses[2].

Different antigens are able to escape through a variety of mechanisms. For example, the African Trypanosome parasites are able to clear the host's antibodies, as well as resist lysis and inhibit parts of the innate immune response[3]. Another bacteria, Bordetella pertussis, is able to escape the immune response by inhibiting neutrophils and macrophages from invading the infection site early on.[4] One cause of Antigenic escape is that a pathogen's epitopes (the binding sites for immune cells) become too similar to a patient's naturally occurring MHC-1 epitopes. The immune system becomes unable to distinguish the infection from self-cells.

Antigenic escape is not only crucial for resistance of a host's natural immune response, but also for the resistance against vaccinations. The problem of antigenic escape has greatly deterred the process of creating new vaccines. Because vaccines generally cover a small ratio of pathogenic strains, the recombination of antigenic DNA that lead to diverse pathogens allows these invaders to resist even newly developed vaccinations[5]. Some antigens may even target pathways different than those particular to the vaccine[4]. Recent research on many vaccines, including the malaria vaccine, has focused on how to anticipate this diversity and create vaccinations that can cover a broader spectrum of antigenic variation[5].

(I have kept what was already in the article in underline. I wanted to add more on specific mechanisms of example bacteria and also how they can evade vaccines. I also wanted to put a section on new vaccine research on how to take care of the antigenic escape problem.)Immcarle12 (talk) 03:30, 9 February 2016 (UTC)