2.5e Immune evasion

Question 1

How do endoparasites evade the immune system?

Answer 1

They mimic host antigens to evade detection and modify host immune response to reduce their chances of destruction

Question 2

What is antigenic variation?

Answer 2

• it allows some parasites to change between different antigens during the course of infection of a host
• it may also allow re-infection of the same host with the new variant

Question 3

How do some viruses escape immune surveillance?

Answer 3

• by integrating their genome into host genomes, existing in an inactive state known as latency
• the virus becomes active again when favourable conditions arise