Immunisation Flashcards
Passive and active are types of what immune response?
Adaptive immune response
What is passive immunity?
The short-term immunity which results from the introduction of antibodies from another person or animal.
What are some advantages of passive immunity?
Gives immediate protection
Is a quick fix
What are some disadvantages of passive immunity?
Short term affect that does not produced immunological memory.
Serum sickness - the incoming antibody is recognised as foreign and results in anaphylaxis.
Incoming immune cells reject the recipient.
Give some examples of passive immunity?
Maternal immunoglobulins can be transferred to foetus via neonatal Fc receptor mechanisms.
Anecdotes for spider, scorpion, snake bites.
What is active immunity?
The immunity which results from the production of antibodies by the immune system in response to the presence of an antigen.
What are some advantages of active immunity?
Long term immunity - immunological memory
Antigen stimulates the response
Faster to respond to a secondary encounter.
What are some disadvantages of active immunity?
No immediate effect.
What is the process of vaccination?
The administration of antigenic material (a vaccine) to stimulate an individual’s immune system to develop adaptive immunity to a pathogen.
What are some common diseases we vaccinate against?
Measles - highly contagious virus causes a rash. Mumps - caused by a virus that can lead to meningitis Rubella Polio Tetanus Flu Shingles Hepatitis A Rabies
Describe vaccines that kill the whole organism?
Target the organism directly
Effective and relatively easy to manufacture
Booster shots likely required
Virus must be heat killed effectively – any live virus can result in vaccine-related disease.
E.g polio
Describe some attenuated whole organism vaccines?
An avirulent strain of target organism is isolated
Can be very powerful and better than killed
Simulate natural infection
Reversion back to virulent form
Refrigeration required.
Describe the outline of the attenuated mechanism?
Virus is isolated and grown in cultured human cells.
Cultured virus is used to infect monkey cells
Virus acquires many mutations that allow it to grow well in monkeys.
Virus no longer grows well in human cells (attenuated) so it can be used as a vaccine.
What are subunit vaccines?
A vaccine which, through chemical extraction, is free from viral nucleic acid and contains only specific protein subunits of a given virus.
What are some advantages of subunit vaccines?
Generally very safe.
Easy to standardise.