Respiratory Immunology Flashcards
What features other than SPUR can be suggestive of a primary immune deficiency?
Weight loss, failure to thrive, severe skin rash, mouth ulceration, family history and unusual autoimmune disease.
What are the two classifications of immunodeficiencys?
How common are they?
Primary - rare.
Secondary - common and often subtle, involving more than one component of the immune system. Those over the age of 85 are particularly at risk.
What two types of immune deficiencies do we get?
What cells do these involve.
Either innate immune system deficiency of phagocytes.
Acquired immune system T and B lymphocytes.
What are the clinical features of phagocyte deficiencies?
May affect common and unusual sites e.g. Deep muscle infection.
What is the common infection for someone with CF?
Burkholderia cepacia.
What is the differential diagnosis of someone with a burkholderia cepacia infection?
It is an extremely rare infection.
So they must already have CF, chronic granulomatous disease or a neutrophil defect.
What different mechanisms of phagocyte deficiency are there?
Failure to produce phagocytes, mobilisation and recruitment.
How can the body fail to make neutrophils?
What two types of defects cause this?
Failure of stem cells to initiate the myeloid lineage.
Primary defect: reticular dysgensis.
Secondary defect: after stem cell transplantion.
What is reticular dysgensis?
Failure to mature stem cells or make platelets. Children with this die in a few days.
What two syndromes cause specific failure to mature neutrophils?
What happens?
Kostmann syndrome - rare autosomal recessive disorder causing severe congenital neutropenia. Children don’t grow properly and don’t regain their birth weight.
Cyclic neutropenia - episodic neutropenia every 4-6 weeks.
What lineage to phagocytes come from?
The leukocyte lineage.
What is the clinical presentation of kostmann syndrome?
Infections, usually within 2 weeks after birth. Then recurrent bacterial infections which can be systemic or localised.
What is the management of Kostmann syndrome?
Supportive treatment: prophylactic antibiotics and antifungals.
Definitive treatment: stem cell transplantation.
Granulocytes colony stimulating factor - assists with maturation of neutrophils.
What is leukocyte adhesion deficiency?
Rare primary immunodeficiency.
Caused by defect in leukocyte integrins CD18.
What does leukocyte adhesion deficiency result in and what is the clinical presentation of it?
Results in failure of neutrophil migration and adhesion.
Clinical picture is characterised by marked leukocytosis and localised bacterial infections that are difficult to detect.
What is the word we remember for features suggesting immunodeficiency and what do the letters mean?
SPUR
Serious infection that are unresponsive to oral antibiotics.
Persistent infections
Unusual infections
Recurrent infections - two or more major ones in one year.
What two ways do phagocytes recognise pathogens?
By direct recognition - binding directly to pathogen
or indirect recognition - binding to opsonins on pathogen.
What different types of PRRs do we get on the surface of phagocytes?
Toll like receptors, scavenger receptors and lectin receptors.
What kind of microbial structures do PRRs recognise?
Bacterial sugars and lipopolysaccharides.
What can go wrong with PRRs causing disease?
What is the result of this?
They can exhibit genetic polymorphisms. Some are associated with increased susceptibility to bacterial infection, but most do not cause disease.
What opsonins receptors to phagocytes display?
Fc receptors that bind to antibodies attached to antigens. Complement receptor (CR1) which binds to complement fractions bound to antigens.
What does a defect in phagocyte opsonin receptors cause?
May cause defective phagocytosis but significant redundancy means this normally doesn’t cause disease.
What are the FAB and Fc ends of antibodies?
The FAB end is at the top of the Y prongs.
The Fc part is at the bottom on the Y body.
What causes chronic granulomatous disease?
Absent respiratory burst meaning the phagocytes have deficient intracellular killing mechanisms.
What’s the commonest form of deficiency causing chronic granulomatous disease?
Deficiency of p47phox component of NADPH oxidase which is X linked.
Gives an inability to form oxygen free radicals.
Why do the granulomas for in chronic granulomatous disease?
Excessive inflammation fails to degrade chemoattractants and antigens and there is a persistent build up of neutrophils, activated macrophages and lymphocytes forming the granuloma.
What are the features of chronic granulomatous disease?
Recurrent deep bacterial infections. Recurrent fungal infections Failure to thrive Lymphadenopathy and hepatomegaly. Granuloma formation.
What bacterial infections do we commonly see with chronic granulomatous disease?
Staphylococcus, aspergillus, pseudomonas cepacia, mycobacteria and atypical mycobacteria.
What test do we do for chronic granulomatous disease?
NBT test (nitroblue tetrazolium) test. Feed neutrophils ecoli. Add a dye that is sensitive to H2O2. If neutrophils can use oxidative killing the dye will be activated.
What is the treatment of chronic granulomatous disease?
Supportive treatment: prophylactic antibiotics and antifungals.
Definitive treatment: stem cell transplantation.
Which bacteria hide inside normal cells and what ones hide inside immune cells?
Normal - salmonella, chlamydia and rickettsia.
Immune - mycobacteria.
How is mycobacteria detected and killed by the body?
Infected macrophages produce IL-12
This induces T cells to make gamma interferon (gIFN).
gIFN feeds back to macrophages and neutrophils.
This stimulates production of TNF which activates NADPH oxidase and stimulates oxidative pathways.
What defects can cause susceptibility to mycobacteria?
Ones affecting gIFN or IL-12.
What do anti TNF drugs treat?
What is an important side effect?
Used to treat inflammatory disease.
Can reactivate latent TB.
What is congenital neutropenia?
What does it cause?
What happens during an NBT test?
Absent neutrophil count, no pus formation, normal leukocyte adhesion markers and NBT test usually absent.
What is leukocyte adhesion defect?
What does it cause?
What happen in an NBT test?
Absent leukocyte adhesion markers.
Increased neutrophil count during infection and no pus formation.
NBT test usually normal.
What do we find in investigation for chronic granulomatous disease?
Normal neutrophil count, pus formation, normal leukocyte adhesion markers.
Abnormal NBT test.
After what length of time does the acquired immune response initiate?
After 96 hours.
How do T cells develop and where?
Armies form haematopoietic stem cells.
exported as immature cells to the thymus.
Only 10% survive selection process in the thymus.
Mature lymphocytes enter the blood stream.
What are the two main groups of T cells?
CD4+ and CD8+
What do CD4+ cells do?
Activate CD8+ and naive B cells.
Influence phagocyte function.
Produce cytokines.
Recognise peptides presented on HLA class II molecules.
What do CD8+ cells do?
Recognise peptides associated with HLA class I molecules. Kill by production of perforins and cytokines. Particularly important in defence against viral infections and tumours.
How do B lymphocytes develop and where?
Arise from haemopoetic stem cells in bone marrow
Mature cells are found mostly in bone marrow, lymphoid tissues and the spleen.
What are the functions of antibodies?
Identification of pathogens.
Recruitment of other immune components.
Neutralisation of toxins
Particularly important in defence against bacteria.
What happens to patients with severe combined immunodeficiency?
Unwell by the age of three months.
Persistent diarrhoea, failure to thrive, infections of all types.
Unusual skin diseases.
Colonisation of infants empty bone marrow by maternal lymphocytes.
Usually a family history of early infant death.
What is severe combined immunodeficiency?
Failure of production of lymphocytes.
What protects infants with severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) in the first three months?
Maternal IgG.
What is transient hypogammaglobinaemia of infancy?
Infants immune system slow to mature so can get infections once the IgG from mothers colostrum has stopped but there production hasn’t started properly.
What is SCID?
Severe combined immunodeficiency.
What is the commonest form of SCID?
X linked SCID.
Is a mutation of a component of IL2 receptors. Resulting in an inability to respond to cytokines.
What kind of cell counts are found in X linked SCID?
What happens to lymphoid tissue?
Very low or absent T cells (IL2 important for their development).
Normal or increased B cells.
Poorly developed lymphoid tissues and thymus.
What is the treatment of SCID?
Hospitalised to avoid infections.
Prophylactic drugs.
Aggressive treatment of existing infections.
Antibody replacement with IV Ig.
Definitive treatment: stem cell transplantation from HlA identical sibling if possible.
Gene therapy to express missing components, making functional lymphoid cells.
What is Digeorge syndrome?
Developmental defect of the 3rd/4th pharyngeal pouch. Caused by a deletion of chromosome 22q11
What do kids with DiGeorge syndrome look like?
Funny looking kid with low set ears, abnormally folded ears, high forehead, cleft palate, small mouth and jaw.
What syndromes do kids with DiGeorge syndrome have?
Hypocalcaemia
Oesophageal atresia
T cell lymphoma
Complex congenital heart disease.
What psychiatric issues can DiGeorge syndrome cause?
Developmental delay.
Obsessive compulsive disorder and schizophrenia.
What does DiGeorge syndrome cause T cell deficiency?
T cells have nowhere to mature.
What infections do we get with DiGeorge syndrome?
Viral and fungal infections due to no CD8 cell to kill them
Repeated bacterial infections as no T cells help B cells to make antibodies.
What cell counts will we find in lab investigations for DiGeorge syndrome?
Absent or decreased T cells.
Normal or increased B cells, but low antibodies levels and poor responses to invaders.
Normal NK cells.
What is the management of DiGeorge syndrome?
Correct metabolic and cardiac abnormalities.
Prophylactic antibiotics and aggressive treatment of infections.
Some require immunoglobulins.
What types of infection do you get when there is a deficiency of T cell cytokine production?
TB, atypical mycobacteria, BCG infection after immunisation and deep fungal e.g. Aspergillus.
What are the clinical features of T cell deficiencies?
Recurrent infections, viral, fungal, bacterial and intracellular pathogens e.g. Mycobacteria. Opportunistic infections, malignancies at a young age and autoimmune disease.
What investigations do we do for suspected T cell deficiencies?
First line : White cell counts and differential.
Serum immunoglobulins and protein electrophoresis.
Flow cytometry for quantitation of lymphocyte subpopulations.
Second line: HIV test etc.
How do patients with antibody deficiencies present?
Recurrent bacterial infections of upper and lower resp and GI tract.
Often common organisms.
Viral infection less frequent.
Antibody mediated autoimmune diseases e.g. Haemolytic anaemia.
What is Brutons Xlinked hypogammaglobinaemia?
Failure to produce mature B cells.
Results in: no circulating B cells, no plasma cells and no circulating antibody after the first 6 months.
How common is selective IgA deficiency?
What does it cause?
1:600
Two thirds of people Asymptomatic.
Rest get recurrent respiratory tract infections.
What is common variable immune deficiency and what does it cause?
Low IgG, IgA and IgE.
Causes recurrent bacterial infections often with severe end organ damage e.g. Bronchiectasis and GI infection.
What are the clinical features of B cell deficiencies?
Recurrent infections usually very common bacteria.
Opportunistic infections and antibody mediated autoimmune disease.
What are the first line investigations for B cell deficiencies?
Total white cell count and differential.
Serum IGs
Serum and urine protein electrophoresis.