In an extensive investigation of a rich set of data collected from RV144 vaccine recipients, we here employ machine learning methods to identify and model associations between antibody features (IgG subclass and antigen specificity) and effector function activities (antibody dependent cellular phagocytosis, cellular cytotoxicity, and cytokine release).

Corresponding classifiers were also built for ADCC and cytokine profiles using each of the three different learning techniques and three different feature sets; the performance of these models is also summarized in Table 1.

The cytokine classifiers perform nearly as well as the ADCP ones, and the ADCC classifiers less accurately but still strikingly well.

82 Fig (ADCC) and S3 Fig ( cytokines ) detail the PLR results.

Lars-based regression results for ADCC and cytokines are presented in S4 Fig, and SS Fig, respectively, and summarized in Table 1.

With a mean PCC of 0.58 and a standard deviation of 0.20, the cytokine regression is comparable to that observed in predicting ADCP, though the representative scatterplot is not as pleasing to the eye due to the density of subjects With low values.

Feature filtering achieves essentially the same performance for ADCC but a degradation in the cytokine performance as assessed by PCC, though the scatterplot appears roughly as good.

For the cytokines , strong IgG1 and IgG3 correlations are observed, particularly with gp120 and V1V2.

Immune responses are regulated by diffusible mediators, the cytokines , which act at sub-nanomolar concentrations.

The spatial range of cytokine communication is a crucial, yet poorly understood, functional property.

Both containment of cytokine action in narrow junctions between immune cells (immunological synapses) and global signaling throughout entire lymph nodes have been proposed, but the conditions under which they might occur are not clear.

The discovery that immune responses are regulated by small diffusible proteins — the cytokines — has been surprising because cytokine diffusion to ‘bystander’ cells might compromise specificity.

Measurements of cytokine concentrations with fine spatial resolution have not been achieved.

These T cells release specific cytokines that alter how the immune system responds to external agents, for example, by recruiting specific immune system cells to fight infection, promoting antibody production, or inhibiting the activation and proliferation of other cells.

Various subtypes of helper T cells are known, such as Th1, Th2, Th17 and Treg, which are distinguished by a differential expression of specific transcription factors and cytokines .

The reachability of each attractor depends on the presence of several external environmental signals (either cytokines or antigen), which are represented as input nodes in the network.