Video - Somatic hypermutation and affinity maturation

Somatic hypermutation and affinity maturation are two mechanisms by which the immune system can adapt to better recognize and neutralize pathogens. Somatic hypermutation is a cellular mechanism by which the immune system adapts to the new foreign elements that confront it (e.g. microbes), whereas affinity maturation refers to the process of increasing the specificity and strength of the interaction between an antibody and its target antigen to increase the effectiveness of the immune response.