An Immune Systems Approach for Classifying Mobile Phone Usage

The Human Immune System

The function of the human immune system is to identify and destroy foreign invaders (antigens) which are possibly harmful to the body. It does this through an innate and nonspecific response (mediated by macrophages) and also with an adaptive and specific response (mediated by lymphocytes). An innate response is not directed towards any specific antigens, but against any invaders that enter the body. The adaptive response is mediated mainly by two types of lymphocytes, B-cells and T-cells. The AIRS approach is modeled based on the behavior of B-cells, hence only the behavior of B-cells will be described here. On the surface of each B-cell are receptors that are capable of recognizing proteins of a specific antigen. Through costimulation and suppression of each other, similar B-cells form networks that can recognize similar antigens.

When antibodies on a B-cell bind with an antigen, the B-cell becomes activated and begins to proliferate. Thus, it means that only B-cells which are able to recognize the invading antigen will proliferate and produce clones (a process known as clonal selection). New B-cell clones are produced which are exact copies of the selected B-cells, but then undergo somatic hyper-mutation to generate a wider range of antibodies, so as to be able to remove the antigens from the body. A small quantity of B-cells remains in the system after the invading antigens have been removed. These B-cells act as an immunological memory to allow the immune system to produce a faster response to similar antigens that might re-infect the body in the future.