Dendritic Cell Algorithms (DCA)

Dendritic cells

Dendritic cells (DCs) are immune cells that form part of the mammalian immune system. Their main function is to process antigen material and present it on the surface to other cells of the immune system, thus functioning as antigen-presenting cells.

Dendritic cells are present in small quantities in tissues that are in contact with the external environment, mainly the skin (where there is a specialized dendritic cell type called Langerhans cells) and the inner lining of the nose, lungs, stomach and intestines. They can also be found in an immature state in the blood. Once activated, they migrate to the lymphoid tissues where they interact with T cells and B cells to initiate and shape the adaptive immune response. At certain development stages they grow branched projections, the dendrites, that give the cell its name. However, these do not have any special relation with neurons, which also possess similar appendages. Immature dendritic cells are also called veiled cells, in which case they possess large cytoplasmic 'veils' rather than dendrites.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dendritic_cell



In nature DCs exist in three states: immature, semi-mature and mature.

The initial state of a DC is immature, where it performs its function of processing the three categories of input signal (PAMP, danger and safe) and in response produces three output signals. Two of the output signals are used to represent the state of the cell, as the immature DC can change state irreversibly to either semi-mature or mature. During its lifespan collecting signals, if the DC has collected majority safe signals it will change state to a semi-mature state and all antigen collected by the cell is presented in a ‘safe’ context.

Conversely, cells exposed to PAMP and danger signals transforms into a mature state,with all collected antigen presented in a dangerous context.

DCA for Bot Detection
Yousof Al-Hammadi, Uwe Aickelin and Julie Greensmith