the human immune system

1. UNIT 2: IMMUNE SYSTEMS
(Campbell & Reece, 2010 –
Chapter 43, EDULINK and
learning guide notes)

2. INTRODUCTION TO IMMUNITY
• An immune system is a system of
• biological structures and
• processes within an organism
• that protects against disease.
• In order to function properly, an
immune system must detect a wide
variety of agents, from viruses to
parasitic worms, and distinguish them
from the organism's own healthy
tissue.

3. COUNTER ACTION OF THESE AGENTS
These agents are referred to as
pathogens – an organism or substance
that could cause a disease.
Pathogens can rapidly evolve and adapt
to avoid detection and destruction by
the immune system.
As a result, multiple defence
mechanisms have also evolved to
recognize and neutralize pathogens.

4. Physical barriers prevent pathogens
such as bacteria and viruses from
entering the organism.
If a pathogen breaches these
barriers, the innate immune system
provides an immediate, but non-
specific response.
Innate immune systems are found in all
plants and animals.

5. If pathogens successfully evade the
innate response, vertebrates possess a
second layer of protection, the acquired
immune system,
which is activated by the innate
response.
Here, the immune system adapts its
response during an infection to improve
its recognition of the pathogen.
This improved response is then retained
after the pathogen has been eliminated, in
the form of an immunological memory,
and allows the acquired immune system to
mount faster and stronger attacks each
time this pathogen is encountered.

6. Differences in the components of the
immune system
Innate immune system Acquired immune system
Response is non-
specific
Pathogen and antigen
specific response
Exposure leads to
immediate maximal
response
Lag time between exposure
and maximal response
Cell-mediated and
humoral components
Cell-mediated and humoral
components
No immunological
memory
Exposure leads to
immunological memory
Found in nearly all
forms of life
Found only in jawed
vertebrates

7. 2. INNATE IMMUNITY
Innate immune responses are active
immediately upon infection and are the
same whether or not the pathogen has
been encountered previously.
It includes barrier defenses
and internal defenses

8. BARRIER DEFENSE SYSTEM
Includes:
 the skin
Mucus membranes of
digestive-, respiratory- urinary
and reproductive tract
oBody secretions: mucus,
saliva (lysozymes), tears, oil
gland secretions, acid in
stomach, sweat.

9. Mucus membranes
Some cells in mucus membrane
produce mucus.
Mucus is a viscous fluid that
enhances defences – trapping
microbes and other foreign
particles

10.  In the trachea, ciliated
epithelial cells sweep mucus
and the trapped microbes
upwards, helping to prevent
infection of the lungs. mucus

11. Body secretions create an
environment that in
unfavourable for microbes.
Lysozymes in saliva, mucous
secretions, and tears destroy
susceptible bacteria as they
enter the respiratory tract or
openings around eyes.
Acid in stomach kill bacteria
Oils and sweat give human skin
a pH between 3-5, which is acidic
enough to prevent the growth of
microorganisms.

12. INTERNAL DEFENSE
If the barrier defences are
damaged and pathogens do enter
the body of an organism, a second
line of defence will be activated.
This defence system is the
internal defence system and is
more sensitive and includes:
phagocytosis and inflammation.

13. PHAGOCYTOSIS
Process by which certain living
cells called phagocytes ingest or
engulf other cells or particles.
The phagocyte may be a one-
celled organism, such as an
amoeba, or one of the body cells,
such as a leukocyte (white blood
cell).
 In higher animals phagocytosis
is chiefly a defensive reaction
against infection and invasion of
the body

14. Different types of phagocytic
cells:
Neutrophils engulf and destroy
microbes
Macrophages are part of the
lymphatic system and are found
throughout the body
Eosinophils discharge destructive
enzymes
Dendritic cells stimulate
development of acquired immunity

15. NEUTROPHIL MACROPHAGE
EOSINOPHIL DENDRITIC CELL

16. PHAGOCYTE ENGULFING A
BACTGERIUM CELL

17. PHAGOCYTOSIS OF AN
AMOEBA

18. INFLAMMATORY RESPONSES
When injured or infected by
pathogens, signalling molecules
are released,
One example of a signalling
molecules is histamine – stored in
mast cells.
These molecules trigger the blood
vessels to dilate and become
more permeable

19. This increase local blood supply and
allow more phagocytes and
antimicrobial proteins to enter
tissues
Pus, a fluid rich in white blood cells,
dead microbes, and cell debris,
accumulates at the site of inflammation
Fever is a systemic inflammatory
response triggered by pyrogens
released by macrophages, and toxins
from pathogens

20. MAJOR EVENTS IN A LOCAL
INFLAMMATORY RESPONSE
Activated
macrophages
and mast cells
at the injury site
release
signalling
molecules that
act on nearby
capillaries.

21. The capillaries dilate and
become more
permeable, allowing
fluid containing
antimibrobial peptides
to enter the tissue.
Signaling molecules
released by immune cells
attract additional
phagocytic cells.

22. Phagocytic cells
digest pathogens and
cell debris at the site,
and the tissue heals

23. ACQUIRED IMMUNITY
Acquired immunity is a specific immune
response system through which the
body specifically detects and destroys
particular substances.
 This immunity protects us against
infectious diseases as the body has
learnt to recognize foreign substances.
 It produces a specific reaction to each
infectious agent, eradicating that agent
from the body.

24. This ability to recognize a pathogen
that has previously elicited an immune
response is the basis for acquiring
immunity to specific diseases.
Hence, we suffer from many diseases,
such as chicken pox, measles etc. only
once.
Thus we can summarize: Acquired
immunity involves 2 main activities:
Destruction of the invaders
Memory of this response

25. WHICH CELLS ARE INVOLVED IN
ACQUIRED IMMUNITY RESPONSE?
Special leucocytes, called the
lymphocytes are released from the
bone marrow.
Some reach the Thymus gland and
mature to form T-lymphocytes (T-
cells)
Some become B-lymphocytes (B-
cells) and is present in the bone
marrow and lymph nodes)

26. HOW B-LYMPHOCYTES WORK
antibody
B-lymphocytes
oThe B-lymphocyte form antibodies
o One type of B-lymphocyte is activated by
a specific antigen on the surface of a
foreign body

27. The antibodies bond to the antigens
and destroy the foreign body.

28. ACTIVE ACQUIRED IMMUNITY
Active immunity occurs when a
person has already been exposed
to antigens (from pathogens)
And develops a secondary response
against specific pathogens.
People receive vaccinations to
develop a primary response, and
then if they get the pathogens later,
active immunity helps to fight
them off.

29. Antigens are foreign
molecules, found on the surface of
pathogens, each pathogen has a
specific antigen.
 The immunity system has countless
amounts of B-Lymphocytes.
Each B-lymphocyte is able to
recognize a specific antigen.
The B-lymphocytes then produce
antibodies that will bond to the
antigens.
This will neutralize or destroy the
pathogen.

30. PASSIVE IMMUNITY
In natural passive immunity, antibodies are
passed from a mother to a child.
Antibodies can be transferred through the
placenta, or transmitted through the colostrum.
The antibodies transmitted through the
colostrum and placenta generally only last for
several weeks, which is long enough to allow
the baby to start to build up its own immune
system and to make its own antibodies.
Artificial passive immunity involves the
introduction of antibodies through means such
as injection - VACCINATIONS.

31. HUMORAL VS. CELL MEDIATED
IMMUNITY
Humoral immunity - deals with infectious
agents in the blood and body tissues
Cell-mediated immunity - deals with body
cells that have been infected.
In general, the humoral system is managed
by B-cells (with help from T-cells).
The cell-mediated system is managed by T-
cells.

32. VACCINATIONS
All vaccinations work by presenting
a foreign antigen to the immune
system in order to evoke an
immune response, but there are
several ways to do this.
We will look at 4 methods:

33. 1. Using an inactivated vaccine
An inactivated vaccine consists of
virus or bacteria that are grown in
culture and then killed .
Although the virus or bacteria particles
are destroyed and cannot replicate, the
virus capsid proteins or bacterial wall
are intact enough to be recognized
and remembered by the immune
system.
 This evokes an immune response.

34. 2. Using an attenuated vaccine
In an attenuated vaccine, live virus
or bacteria with very low virulence are
administered.
They will replicate, but locally or very
slowly.
Which causes an immune response to
produce antibodies.

35. 3. Virus-like particle vaccines
Virus-like particle vaccines consist of
viral protein(s) derived from the
structural proteins of a virus.
 These proteins can self-assemble into
particles that resemble the virus from
which they were derived but lack viral
nucleic acid, meaning that they are not
infectious.
The human papillomavirus and Hepatitis
B virus vaccines are two virus-like
particle-based vaccines currently in
clinical use.

36. 4. A subunit vaccine
A subunit vaccine presents an
antigen to the immune system
without introducing viral particles.
One method of production involves
isolation of a specific protein from a
virus or bacterium and administering
this by itself.

37. ANTIBIOTICS
Antibiotics are also known as anti-
bacterials.
They are drugs used to treat
infections caused by bacteria.
 The first antibiotic was penicillin.

38. How do antibiotics work?
Although there are a number of
different types of antibiotic they all
work in one of two ways:
A bactericidal antibiotic kills the
bacteria. Penicillin is a bactericidal. A
bactericidal usually either interferes with
the formation of the bacterium's cell
wall or its cell contents.
A bacteriostatic stops bacteria from
multiplying.

39. If antibiotics are overused or
used incorrectly there is a
chance that the bacteria will
become resistant - the antibiotic
becomes less effective against
that type of bacterium.
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