If the slightly different strain is so similar to the original strain that
the immune system would react as though it has seen it before, the same
antibodies would probably bind to the slightly different virus just as it
would to the original. When the immune system produces B-cells specific to
a specific antigen, they will remain for a fairly long time. If the body is
invaded by an antigen that fits in the same antigen-binding site later on
whether it is the same antigen or one that is very similar, the B-cells will
produce antibodies as soon as they "detect" the antigen. This is known as
immune "memory." Immune memory will not be activated (i.e., the antigen
will not be recognized as something that the immune system has "seen"
before) if the antigen does not bind to the receptors on a B-cell (I think
they are called membrane-bound antibodies, but I'm not certain.) because the
B-cell for a specific antigen is not produced until that antigen is
introduced to the body.
--
Justin Cobb
Sophomore, Biology-General
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
School of Life Sciences
RSAMSON18 at cs.com> wrote in message news:13.4aafaff.263fb59c at cs.com...
> What I was suggesting in my original posting is if one is vaccinated for
one
> of the
> Type A strain of virus and what comes along is a very slightly different
> strain of the
> Type A virus, the immune system may think "I've seen this before" and not
try
> to
> produce new antibodies until too late. This may only happen rarely and
only
> with the
> devilish flu virus. I still consider it a possibility mainly based on the
> results, which
> was that the outbreak was much more severe on a very high percentage of
those
> were vaccinated.
> Ralph L. Samson
> ---
