Year 2 Flashcards
What is a leukocyte?
Collective name for white blood cells
What is a cytokine?
Protein messengers that leukocytes use to communicate
What is an antigen?
A molecule to which the immune system can respond
What is an epitope?
The specific “bit” of the antigen which the immune system recognises
What is a macrophage?
Sentinel cell found in all tissues to protect against bacteria and fungi
What is a neutrophil?
Blood cell that rapidly responds to infection
What is a B cell?
Lymphocyte which produces antibody to kill extracellular pathogens
What is CD4 T cell?
Helper lymphocyte which helps B cells produce antibody
What is CD8 T cell?
Cytotoxic lymphocyte which helps kill virus infected cells
What is a mast cell?
Sentinel cell found in epithelial tissues to protect against parasites
What are some biological therapeutics?
- Virus
- Therapeutic serum
- Toxin
- Antitoxin
- Vaccine
- Blood
- Blood component/derivative
- Allergenic product
- Analogous product
What are some example products of biological therapeutics?
- Blood derivatives
- Whole blood
- Blood components
- Selected devices
- Human tissues
- Vaccines (preventative and therapeutic)
- Allergenic extracts
- Somatic cell and gene therapies
- Xenotransplantation products
What are the potential benefits of cellular therapy?
- Potential for much greater potency
- Applicable to a wide range of very difficult to treat diseases
- Potential for fewer adverse effects than conventional therapies
- More targeted
What are the potential risks of cellular therapy?
- Tumorigenicity
- Cellular contaminants
- Adventitious agents
- Safety of reagents
- Sterility
- Product stability
- Product variability
What are the potential benefits of blood product therapy?
Effective in controlling bleeding episodes that are life threatening
What are the potential risks of blood product therapy?
- Infections due to adventitious agents
- Development of neutralizing antibodies due to modifications in the molecule
- Allergic reactions to impurities
What treatment can be used against an infectious disease or anti-tumour responses to manipulate the immune response?
- Vaccine
- Immunotherapy
- Antibodies
What treatment can be used against an allergy or autoimmunity to manipulate the immune response?
- Antibodies
* Desensitisation
Why do tumour cells express less class I MHC molecules?
- Consequence of downregulation by virus
* Consequence of “natural selection”
What strategies are there to enhance anti-tumour immunity?
- Enhancing macrophage activity
* Cytokine therapy
What adjuvants are used in enhancing macrophage activity?
- Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG)
* Corynebacterium parvuum
How are the adjuvants used to enhance macrophage activity given to the patient?
It is injected into a local area or mixed with killed excised tumour cells before re-injection
What cytokines are used in cytokine therapy?
- Interferon- (α, β and γ)
- Interleukins 2,4, 6 and 12
- Granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF)
- Tumour necrosis factor (TNF)
What does interleukine-2 do to enhance anti-tumour immunity?
Activates T cell and NK cells
What is Rituximab (Rituxan)?
- A monoclonal antibody that targets CD20 in Non-Hodgkins lymphoma (cancer)
- It is used in autoimmunity and transplantation
Where is CD20 found?
In cancer it is found on cancerous B cells which are destroyed wither by antibody mediated cellular cytotoxicity or complement dependent cytotoxicity
What is Transtuzumab (Herceptin)?
• A monoclonal antibody used to target HER-2 (human epidermal growth factor receptor 2) which is expressed at high levels in some breast cancers
How does Transtuzumab (Herceptin) act?
- Acts by inhibition of HER-2 mediated tumour cell proliferation and migration
- It is only active on cells that over express HER-2 (approx. 25% of breast cancer patients)
