Response of Immune Network Model to Non-self Antigens

Next section describes how the immune network model responds to non-self antigens. The recognition of cell receptors by another cell receptors results in network suppression or activation. It is modelled by eliminating all however one of the self-recognizing cells. Specified a set of patterns (P) to be recognized, the basic algorithm runs as given below:

(1) Randomly initialize the network population;

(2) For all antigenic pattern in P apply the CLONALG algorithm such will return a set of memory cells (M*) and their co-ordinates for the recent antigen;

(3) Find out the affinity or degree of matching among all the individuals of M*;

(4) Removing all however one of the individuals in M* such affinities are greater than a specified threshold. The reasons of this process are to removing redundancy in the network by suppressing self-recognizing elements;

(5) Concatenate staying individuals of the previous step along with the staying individuals found for all antigenic patterns presented. It will result in a large population of memory individuals M;

(6) Find out the affinity of the complete population M and suppress all however one of the self-recognizing elements. It will result in a reduced last population of memory cells such recognize and follow the spatial distribution of the antigens;

(7) Repeat, Steps 2 to 6 till a pre-defined stopping criterion is met, as like: a minimum pattern classification or recognition error.

In this case affinity can be considered to mean the degree of recognition or match, among the elements of the artificial immune system or IS itself (self), and with them and the environment as non-self. The entire immune network theory is represented in diagram given below.

                                             Figure: Immune Network Theory

The Antigen's recognition by an antibody or Cell receptor leads to Network Activation, whereas the recognition of an Idiotope by the antibody results in Network Suppression. Antibody Ab2 is as is the internal illustration of the Antigen Ag, since Ab1 is able of recognizing the Antigen and Ab2 also.