Immune response to infection Flashcards
How does the immune response start?
Detection of tissue damage - damage associated molecular patterns DAMP
Detection of pathogenic structures - pathogen associated molecular pattern PAMP (molecular detection of microbes)
Inter-cellular signalling using interleukins
Activation of the innate immune system, non-specific immune response
Communicate with adaptive immune cells
Non-immune cells can produce antimicrobial peptides
How does a response to infection stop?
After pathogen is cleared, immune cells undergo apoptosis
Suppressed production of inflammatory cytokines mediated by the same mechanism as immune tolerance
After the cell population contracts and some memory cells form tissue repair and remodelling occurs
What are the four different pathogen niches during infection? Give examples of each
Extracellular don’t invade host pathogens - staphylococcus, candida, microbiota, worms
Surface adherent - enteropathogenic and enterohaemorrhagic E.coli sticks to the surface of intestinal wall cells
Intracellular vacuolar - stay within a compartement - salmonella, chlamydia, plasmodium, legionella
Intracellular cytosolic - viruses, Liberia, mycobacterium, burkholderia, TB -break open the compartment they infect and reside in the cytosol
Define innate immunity.
Fast acting, first line of defence germ-line encoded receptors so all cells of one lineage have the same receptors
Pre-determined and present at birth
non-specific
What are the physical, humeral and cellular components of the innate response?
Physical - skin, mucous, epithelial cells, commensal bacteria
Humoral - complement, lectins (neutralise and opsonise pathogens), pentraxins and antimicrobial peptides
Cellular - Neutrophils, macrophages, dendritic cells, natural killer cells
What are the four roles of the innate immune system?
Anaphylatoxins - proteins which can lead to vascular permeability
Chemokines - attract immune cells
Opsonisation - coating of a cell membrane setting it up to be phagocytosed
Membrane attack complex
What organ is the innate humeral response mediated by? What does it produce?
Liver
Lectins
Iron chelation proteins - siderocalins
Complement system
What are the three pathways for the complement cascade?
Classical pathway – activated by C1 binding to antibodies that have bound to antigens
Lectin pathway – activated by C1 binding to lectin that has bound to microbial carbohydrate structures
Alternative pathway – factor C3 gets directly activated onto the surface of the pathogen
How does a membrane attack complex cause cell destruction?
Creates a whole in the cell which can lead to an imbalance of sodium and potassium, disrupting the cell surface tension and causes it to swell and explode due to higher osmolarity
Which cells are involved in the innate immune response?
Granulocytes
Natural killer cells
Dendritic cells
Why do innate immune cells have less than 100 possible receptors? What are the four types?
Innate immune cells recognise structural patterns thus cells of the same lineage have the same receptor
- Toll like receptors
- fc receptors
- Complement receptors
- scavenger receptors
What are the first few responders in an infection?
Neutrophils first - short lived 6hrs
Followed by macrophages
What happens when naive cells are activated by pathogens?
Start secreting cytokines and chemokine
Why is uncontrolled phagocytic activity not good?
Leads to:
Granulomas
Excessive inflammation and adaptive immunity
Tissue damage
Where do macrophages come from?
From monocytes which circulate for 2-3 days then migrate to tissues and develop into macrophages
What type of response to phagocytes show?
Pathogen-type specific
What are macrophages activated by and what is enhanced when they are?
Activated by T helper cells
- phagocytosis and migration
- cytokine/chemokine production
- Expression of cell surface molecules
- antimicrobial activities
- antigen presentation and T-cel activation