Immune Response to Bacteria Flashcards
What is the response time of innate immunity?
Rapid (hours)
What is the specificity of innate immunity?
Relatively non-specific (looks for basic patterns)
What is the memory of innate immunity?
No memory
What is innate immunity particularly important for?
Our response against bacterial pathogens
What does innate immunity deal with?
The early stages of microbial pathogenesis (adherence, invasion, replication)
Where are the physical and chemical barriers to bacterial attachment and invasion found?
Skin, airways and gut
What physical and chemical barriers are found in the skin?
Dead cells and keratin, sebum (trapping and pH) and salt (osmotic control)
What physical and chemical barriers are found in the airways?
Mucus (trapping) and beating cilia moves bacteria up to the throat where they are swallowed or removed
What physical and chemical barriers are present in the gut?
Constant flow of fluids (especially if gut inflammation results in diarrhoea) prevents bacteria from attaching itself, stomach acid, digestive enzymes (pancreas) and bile (gall bladder)
What are AMP’s?
Antimicrobial Peptides
What is an example of an AMP?
Defensins
Where are defensins produced?
In the skin, airways and gut
What do defensins do?
Charged defensins preferentially bind to the bacterial cell membrane which is charged unlike plant and mammal cell membranes
What do defensins do once bound?
Disrupt the normal function of gram negative and gram positive cell membranes by interacting with proteins and pumps which are embedded in those membranes
Where are lysozyme produced?
In the skin and airways
