Immune Evasion by Lymphocytes Flashcards
How have microbes developed immune evasion?
- Bacteria are diverse
- Pathogens are diverse
- Some microbes have evolved mechanisms that enhance their survival in their host
- These immune evasion mechanisms contribute to bacterial pathogenesis
What is the insane immune response effective at?
Innate immune response very efficient at detecting and killing invading microbes
What are neutrophils?
- Most abundant leukocyte (50-70%) in the blood
- Recruited to areas of infection
- Detect microbes
- Perform effector functions -> kill microbes
- Considered “simple” immune cells
- neutrophil response must be balanced to prevent infection by to also prevent damage (inflammation) to the host
What do bacteria do?
-Bacterial express surface and secreted proteins that interfere with innate immune response
What is staphylococcus aureus?
- Gram-positive bacterium, that is a commensal and lives harmlessly in the nose of 30% of human population.
- S. aureus is an opportunistic pathogen able to cause minor skin infections to severe and life-threatening diseases.
- S. aureus has evolved many sophisticated mechanisms to evade neutrophils
Why do bacteria need to evade host defences?
- Arms race between our immune system and bacteria
- Successful bacteria can evade host defences:
- More likely to replicate and propagate their genes
- More likely to cause disease (their pathogenicity)
What is pathogenicity?
The ability of pathogen to cause disease?
What does pathogenicity depend on?
Virulence and infecitivity
What is virulence?
Features that enhance disease causation
What is infecitivty?
general features favouring disease causation
What are the three methods by which bacteria can evade host defence?
- Evade Antibody Opsonisation
- Evade Complement Opsonisation
- Evade neutrophil functions (i.e phagocytosis)
How do bacteria evade antibody opsonisation?
1) Hide antigens
2) Disrupt functions
3) Prevent detection
4) Degrade antibodies
5) Modify antigenicity
How do bacteria hide antigens?
Just coat the bacteria with a polysaccharide capsule- that way the antigens are hidden and cannot be recognised by the host immune system!
How do bacteria disrupt normal immune function?
- Express proteins that means the antibody binds to the pathogen incorrectly- i.e via Fc and not Fab
- Neutrophils and other components of the immune system recognise Fc- so if this isn’t shown- nothing happens as a result of antibody binding
How do bacteria inhibit detection?
Secrete proteins that ‘cover up’ Fc receptors
Play ‘hide and seek’ – Tuberculosis Bacterium
How do bacteria degrade antibodies?
Secrete enzymes (proteases) which chop up the antibodies- making them ineffective
What is antigenicity?
The capacity of the antigen to produce an immune response inside the body- determined by how it binds to Antibodies ( B cell response) or receptors ( T cell response)
How do bacteria modify antigenicity?
- Antigen variation
- Genetic mutations (i.e recombination)- to produce an antigen that is different in structure and cannot be recognised
- Gram-negative bacteria- particularly good at this
What do bacteria acid by evading antibody opsonisation?
- the deposition of complement in the classical complement pathway
- neutrophils and other phagocytes the ability to detect invading microbes
How do bacteria evade complement opsonisation?
Inhibit C3/C5 convertases
2) Bind complement factors and prevent their processing
3) Cleave complement factors
4) Acquire host-derived complement regulators
How do bacteria inhibit C3/C5 convertases?
Secrete proteins which inhibit C3 and C5 convertases
As a result of this:
This prevents
C3b deposition
C3a formation
C5a formation
-Therefore less chemoattraction of neutrophils and less inflammation