IMI 8: immune memory and vaccination

Question 1

what are long-lived plasma cells?

Answer 1

plasma cells that are able to survive extremely long periods of time because they do not have BCR so they are not easily activated

Question 2

do memory T cells have predefined roles?

Answer 2

no

Question 3

what cells are needed for the memory B cells and cytotoxic T cells?

Answer 3

T helper cells

Question 4

which response is faster: primary or secondary?

Answer 4

secondary

Question 5

what are the different types of vaccines and how do they work?

Answer 5

• live attenuated vaccines: made up of much tamer and weaker version of pathogen
• inactive vaccine: dead pathogen BUT do NOT create long lasting immunity
• subunit vaccine: only made of the pathogen’s antigens
• DNA vaccine: only made of the gene that make the specific antigens
• toxoid vaccines: use a chemically disabled form of the purified toxin BUT do NOT establish immunity to bacterium just the symptoms it causes

Question 6

how much vaccination is enough to achieve the eradication of the disease?

Answer 6

depends on the reproduction number
if the reproduction number is lower than 1 then the infection will not sustain continued spread and infection will burn out

Question 7

what does herd immunity mean?

Answer 7

having a level of immunity that means an infection can not spread indefinitely

Question 8

what is passive immunisation?

Answer 8

inject an antibody against the toxin (anti-toxin) to neutralise it