The structure and function of the immune system is governed by complex networks of interactions between cells and molecular components. Vaccination perturbs these networks, triggering specific pathways to induce cellular and humoral immunity. Systems vaccinology studies have generated vast data sets describing the genes related to vaccination, motivating the use of new approaches to identify patterns within the data. Here, we describe a framework called Network Vaccinology to explore the structure and function of biological networks responsible for vaccine-induced immunity. We demonstrate how the principles of graph theory can be used to identify modules of genes, proteins, and metabolites that are associated with innate and adaptive immune responses. Network vaccinology can be used to assess specific and shared molecular mechanisms of different types of vaccines, adjuvants, and routes of administration to direct rational design of the next generation of vaccines.

免疫系统的结构和功能由细胞和分子成分之间复杂的相互作用网络控制。疫苗接种扰乱了这些网络，触发了诱导细胞和体液免疫的特定途径。系统疫苗学研究产生了大量数据集，描述了与疫苗接种相关的基因，推动了使用新方法来识别数据中的模式。在这里，我们描述了一个称为网络疫苗学的框架，以探索负责疫苗诱导免疫的生物网络的结构和功能。我们展示了如何使用图论的原理来识别与先天性和适应性免疫反应相关的基因、蛋白质和代谢物的模块。