Week 1 - Elements of the Immune System Flashcards
What is immunology?
The study of the mechanisms that the body uses to defend against invading organisms and foreign substances in our environment
What is the immune system?
The body’s defense system that is made of tissues, cells, and molecules that fight against infectious agents
What is immunity?
The state of protection against foreign pathogens or substances
What are the major attributes of the immune system?
- It has the ability to distinguish self and non-self molecules
- There are 3 major lines of defenses
- It was the ability to generate immunologic memory
How does your distinguish self from non-self molecules?
Immune cells have inherited receptors to can recognize
What is pathogenesis?
The process by which pathogens induce disease
What are the 4 major categories of pathogens?
- Viruses
- Fungi
- Parasites
- Bacteria
What are the immune system’s layers of defense?
- Anatomical and physiological barriers
- Innate immune system
- Adaptive immune system
What are the non-specific defenses?
- Anatomical and physiological barriers
- Innate immune system
What are the specific defenses?
Adaptive immune system
What are examples of Anatomical and physiological barriers?
- Mechanical
- Chemical
- Microbiological
What are examples of innate immune system defenses?
- Phagocytic cells
- Complement
- Pattern recognition receptors
What are examples of adaptive immune system defenses?
Lymphocytes
What is the first line of defense?
Physiological barriers (Skin)
What comprises of the physiological barrier?
Intact skin and mucous membranes (mechanical barriers) providing physical separation
How does skin provide defense?
Forms a dry, watertight barrier of epithelium protected by keratinized cells
How does sweat and sebum provide protection?
Secrete antimicrobial peptides
What are antimicrobial peptides secreted by sweat and sebum?
- a and b-defensins
- cathelicidin
- lysozyme
What are commensal microbes?
Produces fatty acid that inhibits colonization by other microbes
Where are mucosal surfaces located?
Epithelia surfaces lining the respiratory, GI, and urogenital tract
What are the components of mucus?
- Glycoproteins
- Proteoglycans
- Enzymes
What is the defensive the function for mucus?
Contains
1. Glycoproteins
2. Proteoglycans
3. Enzymes
that protect surfaces against damage and infection
What is the defensive the function for tears and saliva?
Contains lysozymes that kill bacteria by breaking down their cell walls
What are physiological barriers of the respiratory tract?
- Nose hairs
- Cilia
- Mucous
- Microcidal molecules
- Commensal microbes
What are physiological barriers of the GI tract?
- pH of the stomach (1-3)
- Mucus
- Enzymes
- Microcidal molecules
- Commensal microbes
What are the physiological barriers of the UGT?
- pH 4.4
- Mucous
- Microcidal molecules
- Fluid pressure
- Commensal moicrobes
Why should the stomach, vagina, and skin maintain an acidic environment?
Deters microorganism growth
What is a microbiome?
Numerous commensal microorganisms inhabit healthy human bodies
What is purpose of a microbiome?
To protect our body against pathogens
What is the ratio of human to microorganisms?
1:1
Where is microbiota found in the body?
- Gut
- Skin
- Mouth
- Vagina
What are the functions of commensal bacteria?
- Help digest food in gut
- Make vitamins (B12, K, biotin, folic acid)
- Help protect against colonization by disease-causing microorganism
What is commensal bacteria?
Major component of gut flora E.coli that recreates antibacterial proteins colicins that prevent other bacteria from colonizing the gut
What are opportunistic pathogens?
Takes advantage of the body’s weakened defenses or when microbes get into the wrong place
How can antibiotics disrupt the ecology of the colon?
- Colon contains large number of commensal bacteria
- Antibiotics kill many of the commensal bacteria
- Opportunistic pathogens produce toxins causing microbial injury
- Red and white BC leak into gut between injured epithelial cells
What is an example of a disease-causing bacteria that establishes in the gut and can lead to death?
Clostridium difficile
What are the routes pathogens can enter the body to evoke an innate immune response?
- Oral
- Mechanical
- Inhalation
What are the characteristics of an innate response?
- Non-specific and quick
- Leads to inflammation serving to keep infections localized to site of entry and is controlled and terminated
What is the process of innate immune response?
- Bacterial cell surface induces cleavage and activation of complement
- One complement fragment covalently bonds to the bacterium, the other attracts an effector cell
- The complement receptor on effector cell binds to the complement fragment on the bacterium
- The effector cell engulfs the bacterium, kills it, and breaks down
What orchestrates adaptive immunity?
Lymphocytes
How do lymphocytes play a role in adaptive immunity?
- Adapt their responses to the invading pathogen
- Recognizes specific pathogens using surface receptors
What is an antigen?
Lymphocytes that make the receptor specific for a specific region on the pathogen