WEEK 1 INNATE AND PRRs Flashcards
what are 3 strategies the host can adopt to deal with the threat posed by microbes?
- Avoidance
- Resistance
- Tolerance
What do avoidance mechanisms do and what do they include?
- Prevent the exposure to microbes
- Include anatomical barriers and behavioral modifications
What is the aim of resistance in an infection?
- to reduce or eliminate pathogens
What does immunological tolerance refer to?
- ‘mechanisms that prevent an immune response from being mounted against the host’s own tissues’
What is the first,second, third, and fourth line of defense?
- Anatomical barrier on epithelial surfaces (skin, intestine, oral mucosa etc.)
- Complement/antimicrobial proteins (C3, defensins, RegIIIy)
- Innate immune cells (macrophages, granulocytes, NK cells)
- Adaptive immunity (B cells/antibodies, T cells)
What is the basic role of inflammatory inducers?
- They indicate the presence of pathogens or tissue damage
What detects inflammatory inducers?
- Sensor cells e.g. DCs, macrophages, neutrophils (via their innate recognition receptors)
What are examples of inflammatory inducers that trigger innate recognition receptors?
- bacterial LPS
- ATP
What is the precursor for the macrophages, granulocytes, mast cells and DCs of the innate immune system?
- COmmon myeloid progenitor (CMP)
Which cell types do the granulocytes include and what are they aka and why?
- Neutrophils
- Eosinophils
- Basophils
- AKA Polymorphonuclear leukocytes (odly shaped nuclei)
Is the lifespan of granuloctytes short or long?
- Short- only a few days
What does the process of macropinocytosis and which cell type does it occur in?
- Occurs in DCs
- Involves the continuous ingestion of large amounts of extracellular fluid and its contents
What are two categories of inflammatory mediators?
- Cytokines
- Chemokines
Are NK cells lymphocyte like cells?
- YES
Do NK cells have the antigen specific receptors of the adaptive immune cells?
- NO
- But they have the innate receptors that can respond to stress and infections from specific viruses
What is it about the structure of Staph and Strep that makes the bacteria resistant to engulfment by macrophages?
- The polysaccharide capsule
- (Although complement can make the bacteria more susceptible to phagocytosis)
What are the two main compartments where infection can occur?
- Intracellular and exrtacellular
What is an example of facultative intracellular pathogens?
- Mycobacteria - it can replicate either intracellularly or outside the cell
What are two strategies of innate immunity to defend against intracellular pathogens?
- Destroy pathogens before they infect cells (e.g. antimicrobial peptides and phagocytic cells)
- Recognition and killing of cells infected by some pathogens (NK cells check viral infections before the cytotoxic T cells)
What are examples of viruses and bacteria that replicate freely in the cell and viruses that replicate in intracellular vesicles respectively?
- Chlamydia Rickettsia and Listeria (freely in cell)
- Mycobacteria (in intracellular vesicles)
Does the damage caused by an infectious agent depend on where it grows? (provide example)
- YES
- e.g. Strep.pneumoniae in lung causes pneumonia but in the blood it causes sepsis
What are endotoxins known as?
- They are not secreted
- They form part of the bacterial structure
- This structure triggers phagocytes to release cytokines
- This has local and systemic effects
e. g. LIPS of the OCM (gram -ve bacteria) –> fever, pain, rash, septic shock