Word.ws English Dictionary

original antigenic sin

original antigenic sin noun: the propensity of the immune system to preferentially use immunological memory based on a previous infection when a second, slightly different version of the foreign pathogen is encountered, leaving the immune system "trapped" by the first response it has made to each antigen, and unable to mount potentially more effective responses during subsequent infections.

Noun

original antigenic sin (uncountable)

  1. The propensity of the immune system to preferentially use immunological memory based on a previous infection when a second, slightly different version of the foreign pathogen is encountered, leaving the immune system "trapped" by the first response it has made to each antigen, and unable to mount potentially more effective responses during subsequent infections.
    Synonyms:
    Hoskins effect, OAS

Synonyms of original antigenic sin

Origin of original antigenic sin

See original sin.

Questions about original antigenic sin

What does original antigenic sin mean?
Original antigenic sin means the propensity of the immune system to preferentially use immunological memory based on a previous infection when a second, slightly different version of the foreign pathogen is encountered, leaving the immune system "trapped" by the first response it has made to each antigen, and unable to mount potentially more effective responses during subsequent infections.
What part of speech is original antigenic sin?
Original antigenic sin is a noun.

Words near original antigenic sin in the dictionary

  1. origin of coordinates
  2. origin stories
  3. origin story
  4. originable
  5. original
  6. original antigenic sin
  7. original as sin
  8. original aspect ratio
  9. original aspect ratios
  10. original character
  11. original characters

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: original antigenic sin (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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