10 - Intro to Clinical Immunology Flashcards
Immunity
- Ability to protect ourselves from disease
- Recognition & removal of foreign material entering body
- Relies on ability to distinguish between self and non self
- Can be innate or acquired
Immunology
Study of cells, organs, molecules responsible for immunity and how they respond and interact
Why do we need the innate immune system
- Microbes multiply at very high rates, overwhelming infection can occur quickly
- Need a broad system that detects infection rapidly
- Covers the time taken for adaptive immunity to be generated
Diseases caused by extracellular bacteria, parasites, fungi
- Pneumonia
- Tetanus
- Sleeping sickness
Diseases caused by intracellular bacteria and parasites
- Leprosy
- Leishmaniasis
- Malaria
Diseases caused by intracellular viruses
- Smallpox
- Flu
- Chickenpox
Diseases caused by extracellular parasitic worms
- Ascariasis
- Schistosomiasis
Physical components of innate immunity
- Tight junctions
- Keratin
- Mucus assisted by cilia and peristalsis
- Antimicrobial chemicals (defensins)
- Intraepithelial T cells (small number of common microbes
Cellular components of innate immunity
- Macrophages
- Neutrophils
- Dendritic cells
- NK cells
- Mast cells
NK Cells
lymphocyte-like cells capable of killing virus infected and tumour cells without the specificity of true lymphocytes
Soluble components of innate immunity
- Several molecules that recognize/respond to microbes and
promote innate responses exist in soluble form in blood - Provide early defense against pathogens present outside host cells at some stage of their life cycle
- Complement, cytokines, chemokines, defensins, acute phase proteins
What are the two major ways soluble components function
- Bind to microbes & act as opsonins to enhance phagocytosis by macrophages, neutrophils & dendritic cells
- Promote inflammatory responses that bring more phagocytes to sites of infections and may also directly kill microbes
What does innate immunity recognise
- Molecular structures that are produced by microbial
pathogens (often shared by classes of microbes) - Endogenous molecules that are produced by or released
from damaged and dying cells
Molecular structures that are produced by microbial
pathogens
- Pathogen associated molecular patterns (PAMPS)
- Essential for survival of microbes (ensures the target of the immune response can’t just be discarded by the microbe to evade recognition)
Endogenous molecules that are produced by or released
from damaged and dying cells
- Damage associated molecular patterns (DAMPs)
- Produced as a result of cell damage caused by infection
- Also produced in response to sterile injury to cells (chemical toxins, burns, trauma or low blood supply)
- Generally not released by cells dying from apoptosis
How are PAMPs and DAMPs recognised
Pattern Recognition Receptors (PRR)
Pattern Recognition Receptors (PRR)
- Most cell types express PRR and are capable of participating in innate immune respones
- Phagocytes & dendritic cells express the widest variety and greatest amount of these receptors
- When these receptors bind PAMPs and DAMPs they activate signal transduction pathways that promote antimicrobial and proinflammatory functions of the cells in which they are expressed