Generation of Diversity in the T cell Repertoire Flashcards
What is an antigen?
β a molecule that can bind specifically to an antibody
What do adaptive immune reactions occur to?
β specific epitopes not the whole antigen
What is an epitope?
β A small portion of an antigen
What are epitopes a target for?
β TCR, antibodies and MHC
How many epitopes can one antigen have?
β Multiple
What do infection and vaccination induce?
β polyclonal T and B cell responses
What is the key difference between B cells and T cells?
β B cells recognise whole antigens and process them
β T cells donβt recognise native antigens
What happens when a B cell recognises a whole antigen?
β It receives additional activation signals
β the B cell proliferates and produces clones
β they all produce antibodies that are identical to the original B cell
How can T cells recognise antigens?
β The antigens must be processed for T cells to recognise them
What happens to the peptides that an antigen generates?
β they can be presented on the surface of an APC
What does a T cell need to do to be activated?
β interact with an antigen presenting cell to be active
What forms of an antigen will a T cell NOT have a response to?
β soluble native Ag
β cell surface native Ag
β Soluble peptides of Ag
β cell surface peptides of Ag
What form of antigen will a T cell have a response to?
β Cell surface peptides of Ag presented by cells that express MHC antigens
What types of APC will cause a T cell response and why?
β live APCs
β there are additional signals that only viable cells produce that can activate T cells
What are the 5 ways that exogenous antigens can be taken up?
β Phagocytosis β pinocytosis β Fc receptor mediated phagocytosis β complement receptor mediated phagocytosis β membrane Ig receptor mediated uptake
Which 4 immune cells recognise and process antigens?
β Monocytes
β Dendritic cells
β B cells
β macrophages
What are the main APCs?
β myeloid cells
β monocytes and macrophages
What is the most advanced type of APC?
β Dendritic cells
What is the difference between macrophages and monocytes?
β monocytes are blood circulating cells
β macrophages are in tissues and are terminally differentiated monocytes
What two cell types can monocytes become?
β dendritic cells or macrophages
Where are dendritic cells found?
β mucosal tissues
What do dendritic cells induce?
β strong T cell responses and inflammation
What are macrophages better at doing than dendritic cells?
β better equipped to kill pathogens
β NO production
What are dendritic cells better at doing than macrophages?
β migrating to lymph nodes via CCR7 and presenting antigens to T cells
Where are B cells highly abundant?
β In mucosal tissues
How do B cells internalise antigens?
β receptor mediated internalisation
What is the primary function of B cells?
β to make antibodies but they are still good at antigen presentation
What bacterium are dendritic cells important against?
β Mycobacterium tuberculosis
What cell is the main inducer of the T cell immune response to neisseria meningitidis?
β B cells
What are the 4 steps for endogenous antigen processing?
β Uptake
β degradation
β antigen-MHC complex formation
β Presentation
When is endogenous antigen uptake done?
β when the antigens/pathogens are already in the cell
What is endogenous antigen degradation?
β Pathogenic antigens synthesised in the cytoplasm undergo limited proteolytic degradation in the cytoplasm
What is the antigen-MHC complex formation?
β loading of the peptide antigens onto MHC class I molecules
What is presentation of endogenous antigens?
β transport and expression of antigen MHC complexes on the surface of cells for recognition by T cells
What are macrophages specialised for?
β motility, phagocytosis and the introduction of particles to the lysosomal system
Why is a non-lyosomal mechanism to process antigens necessary?
β most cell types do not have lysosomal systems but viruses can infect most cell types
How does cytosolic presentation occur?
β The viral protein is in the cytosol
β It enters the proteasome
β It is cleaved into multiple peptides
β loaded onto MHC class I and presented on the cell surface
How are antigens from inactive viruses processed?
β via the exogenous pathway
What kind of a response do inactive viruses raise?
β a weak cytotoxic response
What kind of drugs is the processing of antigens from inactive viruses sensitive to?
β lysosomotropic drugs