Immunology Flashcards
What are the benefits to understanding immunology as a dental professional?
- Patient benefit
- It influences treatment and conduct
- Understand responses to mucosal infections
- Make choices in the workplace
- Can give advice to patient/colleagues
What is the role of the immune system?
- Defence against pathogens
- Prevention or removal
- Maintain memory
- Kill or delete
- Tolerate
What is pathogenicity?
It is the ability of a particles to cause damage to the body
What is the collateral damage?
It is damage that is caused by the immune system to the host as a result of stimulation by a pathogen. It occurs when immune system does not downregulate
What is immune tolerance?
It is the ability of the immune system to tolerate certain molecules and organism, in order to preserve a healthy balance, as some organism and molecules do not pose a threat to the hosts tissues. It is a continues, complex process that involves many molecules
What are the two main types of immunity?
- Innate immunity
2. Aquired immunity
Discuss the barrier of the innate immune system.
Barrier protect common portals of microbe entry. They can be separated into physical, mechanical & chemical barrier
Discuss the importance of macrophages & neutrophils.
They are phagocytes that can be used to detect pathogen and destroy them. They migrate from blood and many specialist macrophages and neutrophils are present in every tissue of the body. Macrophages and neutrophils can also be used in the acquired immunity. Macrophages can also produce inflammatory cytokines to regulate inflammation.
Give an example of one anti-microbial peptide
Cathelicidin-LL-37, which is transmembrane pore-forming peptide in the cell membrane wall
What is a NET?
It is neutrophil extracellular trap, which forms of chromatin DNA coated in antimicrobial peptides that can be used to catch pathogens by a neutrophil.
What is a natural killer cell?
It is able to recognise cells by their protein on cell membrane thus able to induce apoptosis to infected or altered cells of the body
What structures can be recognised on the microbes?
- Lipopolysacharide
- Bacterial glycoprotein
- Microbe DNA
- Double stranded RNA
How does the innate immune system recognise microbes?
By using the pathogen-associated molecular patterns that are present on the microbes
Why is innate immunity so highly effective?
Innate mechanisms have evolved to recognise microbe structures that are essential for the survival & infectivity of these microbes
What do innate immunity cells have to recognise PAMPS?
- Pattern recognition receptors
2. Protein both secreted and transmembrane
