Immunology Chapter 1: Overview of Immune system

Pathogens fall into four major categories

1. viruses 2. fungi 3. parasites 4. bacteria

What challenges do transplanted tissues and cancer present to clinicians?

A healthy immune system typically rejects or destroys nonself proteins, such as those encountered in most transplant situations, and tolerates self cells.

antigens

Foreign material that invades the body

antibodies

Specialized proteins that aid in destroying infectious agents - produced by B cells and can be found in bodily fluids. - can be transferred between individuals to provide passive immune protection.

recognition molecules

The immune response relies on recognition molecules that can be germline encoded or randomly generated.

vaccinations

a means to prepare the immune system to effectively eradicate an infectious agent before it can cause disease

The process of self-tolerance

ensures that the immune system avoids destroying host tissue.

humoral immunity

fighting pathogens with antibodies

Innate response

first line of defense, utilizing germline encoded recognition molecules and phagocytic cells. - Innate immunity is faster, but less specific than adaptive responses (adaptive take several days but highly specific)

T lymphocytes

form in the thymus and other lymphatic tissue and attack cancer cells, viruses, and foreign substances

How does the innate and adaptive responses interact?

immunity operate cooperatively; activation of the innate immune response produces signals that stimulate and direct subsequent adaptive immune pathways.

adaptive immunity

immunity relies upon surface receptors, called B- and T-cell receptors, that are randomly generated by DNA rearrangements in developing B and T cells.

Dysfunctions of the immune system

include common maladies such as allergies, asthma, and autoimmune disease (overly active or misdirected immune responses) as well as immune deficiency (insufficient immune responses).

The vertebrate immune system can be divided into two interconnected arms of immunity

innate & adaptive

Memory Cells

residual B and T cells that remain after antigen exposure and that pick up where they left off dur- ing a subsequent, or secondary, response.

Clonal selection

the process by which individual T and B lymphocytes are engaged by antigen and cloned to create a population of antigen-reactive cells.

Immunology

the state of protection against foreign patho- gens or substances (antigens).

Cell-mediated Immunity

uses primarily antigen-specific T lymphocytes, which act to eradicate pathogens or otherwise aid other cells in inducing immunity.

Does the immune response become quickly tailored to the type of organism involved?

yes