Immunology study guide

Daryn Green

Basic Immunological definitions and Concepts

• Vocab– Disease: a change in normal body function from

anything but injury– Pathogen: a disease causing organism– Infectious disease: An infection that can be spread– Vector: animal that carries the infection to

humans; remains asymptomatic– Vector borne disease: a disease spread by vectors

Definitions and concepts (Cont.)

• Germ theory of disease– A theory by Pasteur and Koch saying diseases are

caused by pathogen

• Normal flora: a unique micro organism that lives inside the body w/out harming it

• Histamine: stimulates blood flow; released by infected cell

• Interferon: tells cells around it of infection and helps them resist infection; released during inflammatory response

Definitions (cont.)• Fever: a raise in body temp. • Antibodies: made by plasma cells; attacks

pathogen• Lysozymes: break down pathogen• Mucus: in openings in bodies; catches pathogen• Phagocyte: eats • Antigen: the ID tag of a pathogen• Vaccine: small doses of virus given to body to learn

how to fight it off.• Memory: when the body remembers how to

produce plasma cells and antibodies to fight off pathogen

Definitions (cont.)

• Maternal Immunity: Immunity obtained from placenta and breast milk

• Hemorrhagic Disease:

Concepts

• Koch’s Postulates – Find pathogen– Isolate pathogen– Inject into someone else– Isolate again in other person and see if it matches

• Why infect the human body?– Many nutrients – Moist (75% water) – Steady/constant temperature

Germ Theory of Disease

• Says that all diseases have a pathogen• Pasteur

Immune systemNon specific defenses

• How does skin protect?– Many Layers– Outer layers are dead– Sweat/oil prevents virus from sticking

• Mucus and lysozymes capture, then break down the pathogen at openings in body

Inflammatory response

• Infected wound creates histamine • Blood flow increases• Veins swell and release WBC• WBC attack pathogen

Fever

• Raise in body temperature• Why does it happen? – Slow down growth of bacteria– Trigger interferon – Increase WBC

• Interferon: Helps other cells resist infection

Specific Defenses• Humoral Response

– Cell gets infected– B-cells recognize the antigen – T-Cells energize B-cells– B-cells turn into plasma cells– Plasma cells create antibodies– Antibodies grab pathogen– Phagocyte eats entire structure

• Occurs in Blood and lymph nodes• Key players

– Pathogen– B cells– T cells– Plasma cells– Antibodies– Phagocyte

Specific Defenses

• Cell Mediated– Macrophage Engulfs pathogen– Macrophage shows antigen of pathogen as its antigen– T cells come over and learn the antigen– T cells become Killer T Cells– Killer T cells attack all infected cells

• Occurs when • Key Players– Macrophage– T cells – Killer T cells

Types of Immunity

• Active immunity– Created by Jenner• Isolated pathogen• Injected his son w/ small dose of smallpox• Son lived• First vaccine

– Vaccine comes in, body fights it off and retains memory

– We need to get multiple flu vaccines because the strains are always mutating

Leads to permanent immunity for specific pathogen

Types of Immunity

• Passive Immunity– Only temporary because you are being injected

with someone else’s antibodies• Your body doesn’t make more so it doesn’t retain

memory• Fights off antibodies

– Want to get it for travel

Nose picking is good

• Why???– Because mucus traps pathogen and stores as

boogers– When you eat it, it is like you are eating the

pathogen– It acts as a vaccine because your body will retain

memory

Vaccines Undermined• Types of people complaining:– Antivaccine lobbyists

• Believe conspiracy theories• Give false research to make vaccines look bad

– Journalists• Publish scare stories and false information

– Lawyers• Look at previous cases siding with person against disease

and try to get a claim off of that.

• Solution?– To start an act to track all bad reactions and to allow

for the same amount of money to be given in any case due to side effects

Type of Pathogen Notes• Viruses– Ex: Small Pox, chicken Pox, measles, Mumps, HIV

– Lytic: the reproduction of viruses– Lysogenic: waiting for a stimulus to reproduce– Treatment• Vaccines • Cell mediated and humoral responses• NOT antibiotics because viruses live in cell and will not

react to it

Living Nonliving

Reproduce Not complete cell

DNA/RNA No energy use

Types of Pathogen Notes

• Bacterial– EX: Tuberculosis, strep throat, influenza, anthrax,

MRSA– Shapes• Rod shaped: bacilli• Spiral: spirlla• Round: cocci

– Treatment• Humoral and cell mediated• Vaccines• Antibiotics

– Fleming: pennacillian

Problems w/ the Immune System

• HIV– Spread by • sexual contact• Body Fluid contact• Mother to Baby

– Infects T cells– Goes from RNA-> DNA in a process called reverse

transcription

Problems w/ Immune System

• Cancer: a mutant gene that goes out of control

• Tumor: a cluster of mutant genes out of control

• Viral: pathogen infects cells and cells reproduce out of control

• Radiation: exposed during x-rays, sunlight, etc• Chemicals: Chemicals that cause cancer

(carcinogens) ex: tobacco, chloroform