Optimality in kinetic proofreading and early T-cell recognition: revisiting the speed, energy, accuracy trade-off
Year: 2017
Type: preprint
Abstract: In the immune system, T cells can quickly discriminate between foreign and self ligands with high accuracy. There is significant evidence T-cells achieve this remarkable performance utilizing a network architecture based on kinetic proofreading (KPR). KPR-based mechanisms actively consume energy to increase the specificity beyond what is possible in equilibrium. An important theoretical question that arises is to understand the trade-offs and fundamental limits on accuracy, speed, and dissipation (energy consumption). Recent theoretical work suggests that it should always be possible to reduce the error of KPR-based mechanisms by waiting longer and/or consuming more energy. Surprisingly, we find that this is not the case and that there actually exists an optimal point in the speed-energy-accuracy plane for KPR and its generalizations. We give general arguments for why we expect this optimal to be a generic property of all KPR-based biochemical networks and discuss implications for our understanding of the T cell receptor circuit.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Authors: Wenping Cui, Pankaj Mehta
Language: English
Subfield: Statistical and Nonlinear Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2605616630