Codon Insertion and Deletion in Human Antibody Responses
Author Information
Author(s): Donald C Reason, Jianhui Zhou
Primary Institution: Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute, Oakland, CA, USA
Hypothesis
Codon insertion and/or deletion may represent a mechanism that contributes to the affinity maturation of antibodies.
Conclusion
Codon insertions and deletions occur frequently in human antibodies following vaccination and can affect the binding affinity for antigens.
Supporting Evidence
- 12 of the 124 independent heavy and light rearrangements analyzed contained insertion/deletion events.
- Insertions and deletions were observed most often in the complementarity determining regions.
- Clonal lineage analysis shows that these events occur throughout the somatic maturation of individual antibody clones.
Takeaway
When our bodies make antibodies, sometimes they add or remove tiny pieces of their building blocks, which helps them work better against germs.
Methodology
Repertoire cloning was used to analyze human antibodies directed against carbohydrate and protein antigens.
Potential Biases
The methodology may introduce bias due to the loss of native heavy and light chain pairing during cloning.
Limitations
The study may be limited by potential PCR-related artifacts and the inability to rule out allelic variants.
Participant Demographics
Adult volunteers who received various vaccines.
Statistical Information
P-Value
0.05
Statistical Significance
p<0.05
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
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