Immune Response to Infection Flashcards
What is in mucus that protects the epithelial cells from damage and helps limit infection via chemical barrier?
Enzymes and peptides
What three tracts of the body have mucosal epithelia?
GI
Respiratory
Urogenital
How does structure correlate with function for mucosal surfaces?
Mucosal surfaces are physiological areas of gas exchange (lungs), food absorption (gut), sensory activity (eyes, nasopharynx) and reproduction so they structure of the mucus needs to be dynamic, thin and permeable.
What percent of the human immune system is comprised of the mucousal immune system?
75%
What are the two ways the common cold can be transmitted?
Directly via droplets
Indirectly via fomites
What is the driving force that has shaped the development of the immune system in vertebrates?
The “war” between pathogenic microbes and the immune system (each thing develops defenses and subversions against each other)
What cell secretes mucus? What type of barrier does the mucus form?
Epithelial cells secrete mucus to form a physical barrier. But it is also a chemical barrier because there are enzymes and peptides present in the mucus.
Where is the majority of the mucousal immune system in the gut?
The small intestine because this is where the bulk of food re-absorption takes place
there are many commensal bacteria that aid this process
What area is located just below the epithelial cell layer in case pathogens breach the physical barrier?
What four cell types are found here?
The lamina propria which contains DC, macrophages, effector T and B cells, and IgA-producing plasma cells.
What is the function of Peyer’s patches and isolated lymphoid follicles?
to monitor the contents of the intestinal lumen and initiate adaptive immune responses (it is like the LN of the mucousal system)
How are microorganisms trafficed into the lamina propria and Peyer’s patches?
they are transported across M cells which are spaced among the epithelial cells of the small intestine
What do M cells do?
transport microorganisms from the intestinal lumen into the lamina propria, peyers patches and isolated lymphoid follicles to put them in contact with APCs like DCs and T/B lymphocytes
Once a pathogen contacts a DC in peyers patches, where do they go?
Through lymphatic drainage to the mesenteric LN
An isolated lymphoid follicle is like a smaller version of ___________________ except it differs in _________because it consists mostly of _____________________.
Peyer’s patch
composition
lymphocytes
Where are Peyer’s Patches found?
Where are isolated lymphoid follicles found?
PP- small intestine
ILF- small intestine and colon
Where are the mesenteric LN located?
in the membrane of connective tissue that holds the gut in place
Naive B, T lymphocytes traffic into Peyer’s patches, isolated lymphoid follicles, and mesenteric LN via ______________________.
High endothelial venules
What three structures of the mucousal immune system do naive B and T cells traffic into via HEV?
Peyer’s patches
Isolated lymphoid follicles
Mesenteric LN
After activation in the mesenteric LN, where do effector B and T cells travel?
through efferent lymphatic drainage into the thoracic duct to reenter the blood and then they migrate back to the mucosal immune system
What is able to ensure that “mucosal T and B cells” only circulate to the mucosal immune system and not back throughout the body?
Chemokines, cytokines, homing receptors
What is the major antibody of the mucosal immune system?
What 5 roles does it perform?
IgA
- export toxins and pathogens FROM lamina propria while it is being exported
- Bind and neutralize ae ntigens internalized in endosomes
- Bind and neutralize pathogens in the gut lumen
- bind and internalize pathogens through M cells to take to lymphoid tissue
- pick up pathogens from endosomes to take to lymphoid tissue
The lymphocyte and myeloid cell lineages of the mucosal immune system derive from the _____________________ as those of other elements of the immune system but, ___________________________.
Same precursors, but when they encounter an antigen in the mucosal immune system, they become permanent members and only traffic back to these mucosal tissues
What is the incubation period of a pathogen?
The period of time from the start of infection for the pathogen to increase in numbers to a threshold where clinical disease is initiated.
What determines the length of incubation period? (4 things)
- the number of pathogens that are the initial infecting population
- the rate the pathogen replicates
- the impact of the innate and adaptive immune system on containing the growth
- the number of pathogen needed to initiate disease (threshold)
What are the three outcomes that can occur when a pathogen is encountered?
- The host’s immune system can eliminate the pathogen band it is unabated btefore disease is even initiated
- The pathogen passes threshold, but the immune system response increases and the number of pathogens decreases back below threshold
- The pathogen passes threshold, can’t be controlled by the hosts immune system and the host dies
What is the major target of the adaptive immune system?
The pathogens attachment site to the host or tissue
What are the four major attachment strategies used by pathogens to bind to hosts?
- glycocalyx polysaccharide network (strep pneumoniae)
- Fimbrae or pili short proteins (strep pyogenes A)
- Protein receptors (viruses)
- adhesive disc (giardia intestinalis)
What is glycocalyx?
What is the purpose?
What pathogen uses glycocalyx?
Network of polysaccharides that layer around the pathogen to attach to cells in the lungs.
Strep pneumonia
What are fimbrae and pili?
What pathogen utilizes this attachment?
Short proteins that extend from the cell wall of Strep Pyogenes A which allows them to attach to cells of the trachea and cause strep throat
What is Giardia intestinalis?
What adhesion strategy does it use to attach to hosts?
a flagellated protozoa that uses adhesive discs to attach to the lining of the intestine
What are the two main ways humans are able to block adhesion by pathogens?
- Commensal bacteria forces the pathogen to compete for binding space
- The adaptive immune system targets adhesion molecules