Mathematical modelling of immunodominance

Human immune response to viral infection consists of innate and adaptive immune responses. Innate immune response is mainly determined by interferon produced by infected cells and preventing (or down-regulating) further infection of uninfected cells. It is followed by the adaptive immune response provided by T and B lymphocytes. Adaptive immune response can be accompanied by immunodominance which means that there are different types of antigen- specific lymphocytes and antibodies which compete with each other, and some of them can dominate or even eliminate the others. Moreover, dominating antibodies are not necessarily most efficient for virus elimination. In this case, immunodominance can weaken the immune response, and this effect is observed for COVID-19 patients. In this work we will develop a new mathematical model of immunodominance and will use it to describe some aspects of this phenomenon.