How Does the Immune System Respond to a Changing Pathogen?

Photo credit:
http://bio1151.nicerweb.com/Locked/media/ch2
8/trypanosoma.html

Natural selection favors parasites that are able

to maintain a low level infection in a host for a
long period of time. Trypanosome, the
unicellular parasite that causes sleeping
sickness, as shown at the left, is one example.
The glycoprotein covering a trypanosomes
surface is encoded by a gene that is duplicated
more than a thousand times in the organisms
genome. Each copy is slightly different. By
periodically switching among these genomes
the parasite can change the molecular structure
of its surface glycoprotein.

Part A
The data to the left is the measure of the
abundance of Trypanosome parasites in the
blood of one human patient during the first
weeks of a chronic infection.
Interpret the data from part A:
1. Plot the data and discuss any
patterns shown by the data.
2. Assume that a drop in parasite
abundance reflects an effective
immune response by the host.
Formulate a hypothesis to explain the
pattern you described above.

Day
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
22
24

Number of parasites in
millions per ml. of blood
0.1
0.3
1.2
0.2
0.2
0.9
0.6
0.1
0.7
1.2
0.2

Part B
Many decades after scientists first observed the pattern of trypanosome abundance
over the course of infection, researchers identified antibodies specific to different forms

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of the parasites surface glycoprotein. The table below lists the relative abundance of
two such antibodies during the early period of chronic infection, using an index ranging
from 0 to 1.

Day

Antibody
Antibody
specific to specific to
glycoprote glycoprote
in variant in variant
A
B

Interpret the data from part B:

Both of the data sets show information for
the same time period after an infection, 224 days. This information can then be
illustrated on the same graph that was
created in part A. The data in part B uses
different units so a second Y-axis can be
made on the right side of the graph in part
A. Use an appropriate scale and plot the
data in part B using different colors or
symbols. You now have a graph that
compares how two dependent variables
change relative to a shared independent
variable.

4
0
0
6
0
0
8
0.2
0
10
0.5
0
12
1
0
14
1
0.1
16
1
0.3
18
1
0.9
20
1
1
22
1
1
24
1
1
3. Describe any patterns you observe by comparing the two data sets over the same
time period.
4. Do these patterns support your hypothesis from part A?

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