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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2021 Dec 16.
Published in final edited form as: Cell Syst. 2020 Oct 7;11(6):573–588.e9. doi: 10.1016/j.cels.2020.09.005

Figure 3. Schematics of the B cell response in silico.

Figure 3

Following a priming vaccination where NNP immunogens are being administered, germinal center reaction (GCR) is elicited. A number Nseed B cells from the repertoire (pink square) seeds (purple arrow) a germinal center (ellipse). Cells must capture at least Aseed Ag molecules to attempt entry. Different B cell clones targeting different epitopes (different colors) compete over Ag for 16 days (TExpand ). The GC has B cells capacity of N (see Eq.(9)). B cells proliferate at a rate βi that depends on the amount of Ag they capture (see Eq.(8)), and die with a death rate μ (see Eq.(9)). Following each cellular division, B cells acquire mutations that change their binding energy to the Ag (see Eq.(1)). The difference between the daughter binding energy (Edaughter) and the parent binding energy (Eparent) is drawn from a log-normal distribution (see Method Details, section “Vaccination in silico”). During the GCR, memory B cells are created as they mature from the GC (cyan arrow). The constant flux of memory B cells depends on their exit probability Pexit. These cells, along with cells from the naïve repertoire, seed the following GC which is elicited following a boost vaccine with an immunogen. Memory B cells which are left outside of the GC expand in an Ag dependent manner with a birth rate βExpand and die with rate μMemory Bcells expand. B cells created at this stage, memory B cells created from the second GC, and cells from the naïve repertoire seed the next GC elicited following the 2nd boost.