Original antigenic sin

The original antigenic sin: When the body first encounters an infection it produces effective antibodies against its dominant antigens and thus eliminates the infection. But when it encounters the same infection, at a later evolved stage, with a new dominant antigen, with the original antigen now being recessive, the immune system will still produce the former antibodies against this old "now recessive antigen" and not develop new antibodies against the new dominant one. This results in the production of ineffective antibodies and thus a weak immunity.

Original antigenic sin, also known as antigenic imprinting, the Hoskins effect,[1] immunological imprinting,[2] or primary addiction[3] is the propensity of the immune system to preferentially use immunological memory based on a previous infection when a second slightly different version of that foreign pathogen (e.g. a virus or bacterium) is encountered. This leaves the immune system "trapped" by the first response it has made to each antigen, and unable to mount potentially more effective responses during subsequent infections. Antibodies or T-cells induced during infections with the first variant of the pathogen are subject to repertoire freeze, a form of original antigenic sin.

The phenomenon has been described in relation to influenza virus, SARS-CoV-2,[2] dengue fever, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)[4] and to several other viruses.[5]

  1. ^ Hoskins, T.W.; Davies, Joan R.; Smith, A.J.; Miller, Christine L.; Allchin, Audrey (1979). "Assessment of inactivated influenza-A vaccine after three outbreaks of influenza A at Christ's Hospital". The Lancet. 313 (8106): 33–35. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(79)90468-9. PMID 83475. S2CID 26802171.
  2. ^ a b Focosi, Daniele; Genoni, Angelo; Lucenteforte, Ersilia; Tillati, Silvia; Tamborini, Antonio; Spezia, Pietro Giorgio; Azzi, Lorenzo; Baj, Andreina; Maggi, Fabrizio (2021-04-01). "Previous Humoral Immunity to the Endemic Seasonal Alphacoronaviruses NL63 and 229E Is Associated with Worse Clinical Outcome in COVID-19 and Suggests Original Antigenic Sin". Life. 11 (4): 298. doi:10.3390/life11040298. ISSN 2075-1729. PMC 8067214. PMID 33915711.
  3. ^ Schiepers, Ariën; van ’t Wout, Marije; et al. (6 September 2022). "Molecular fate-mapping of serum antibodies reveals the effects of antigenic imprinting on repeated immunization". bioRxiv 10.1101/2022.08.29.505743.
  4. ^ Singh, Rana AK; Rodgers, John R; Barry, Michael A (2002). "The role of T cell antagonism and original antigenic sin in genetic immunization" (PDF). The Journal of Immunology. 169 (12): 6779–6786. doi:10.4049/jimmunol.169.12.6779. PMID 12471109. Retrieved May 14, 2021.
  5. ^ Deem, Michael W.The Adaptive Immune Response Archived 2008-07-04 at the Wayback Machine Rice University