NEUTRALIZING ANTIVIRAL B CELL RESPONSES

Neutralizing antiviral B cell responses differ in various aspects from the many usually measured B cell responses specific for protein in adjuvants. In particular, such neutralizing antiviral B cell responses are more rapidly induced, reach higher titers, are longer lived, and are efficiently generated without adjuvants. Evidence is summarized here that the repetitiveness of many viral antigens is a key factor responsible for the efficiency of these B cell responses, amplifying B cells early and rapidly for potent IgM responses and also for efficient switching to IgG. The data reviewed indicate that B cells discriminate antigen patterns via the degree of surface Ig-cross-linking and use antigen repetitiveness as a self/nonself discriminator.