This document provides an overview of the immune system and how vaccines work in 3 sentences or less: The immune system has both an innate response that is non-specific and provides immediate defense against microbes, as well as an adaptive response that is specific, slower acting but provides long-lasting immunity through antibody production and memory cells. Vaccines work by mimicking infection in a safe way to trigger the adaptive immune response and produce antibodies and memory cells to provide protection against disease without having to experience the actual infection. Different types of vaccines include live attenuated, inactivated, subunit, conjugate and mRNA vaccines which work through different mechanisms to safely induce immunity against pathogens.

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4. LAWRENCE DREYFUS
Professor Emeritus @ UMKC School of
Biological and Chemical Sciences and School of Medicine;
Served as Chair of the Biology Faculty,
Dean of the School of Biological Sciences,
andVice Chancellor for Research;
Taught Medical Microbiology for 30+ years

5. Your Immune System
&
How Vaccines Work

6. We are continuously exposed to dangerous
disease-causing microbes

7. THE IMMUNE SYSTEM
Two Separate, Yet Interconnected Facets
• Innate Immune Response
• Everyone’s is identical
• Rapid Action (Immediate)
• First line of defense against an “invading” microbe
• Non-Specific
• Slows progression of an infection; presents foreign “antigens” to Adaptive System
• Adaptive Immune Response
• We are born with the potential to mount a response
• Response is slower in action (1-2 weeks)
• Response in specific (tailor made) for any and all antigens we encounter
• Has a soluble component (Antibodies) & a cellular component (CytotoxicT-Cells)
• Evokes a memory response that can last years to decades!

8. The Cellular Players of the Immune System

9. Overview of the Innate Immune System
a)
Security walls
Prevent entry
Security cameras
Detect invaders
Security teams
Eliminate threat
b)
First-line defenses
Prevent microbial entry
Skin and mucous
membranes
Antimicrobial
substances
Sensor systems
Detect damage and
microbial invasion
Pattern recognition
receptors (PRRs)
Complement system
Innate effector actions
Eliminate invader
Interferon response
Phagocytosis
Complement activation
Inflammatory response
Fever

10. Overview of Adaptive Immune Response

11. Roles of T-Cell Types in Adaptive Immunity
• CD8 T-Cells kill
virus-infected
and cancer cells
• CD4 T-Cells Provide
Help for B-Cell
activation

12. Memory Cell Clonal Expansion

13. Why Antibodies Are So Important

14. Acquiring Immunity to an Infectious Disease

15. Natural vs Artificial Immunity
Active Immunity
Natural Active Immunity
Immunity that
results from an
immune response
in an individual
after exposure to
an infectious
agent.
Artificial Active Immunity
Immunity that
results from
an immune
response in an
individual
after
vaccination.
Passive Immunity
Natural Passive Immunity
Immunity that results
when antibodies from
a woman are
transferred to her
developing fetus
during pregnancy or
to an infant during
breast feeding.
Artificial Passive Immunity
Immunity that
results when
antibodies
contained in the
serum of other
people or animals
are injected into an
individual.

16. Impact of Vaccination on Selected Diseases in the U.K.
Nature Reviews Immunology volume 21, pages83–100 (2021)

17. Vaccine Types
Live attenuated agent vaccines
• Are best at mimicking infection (Examples: MMR, chickenpox, internasal influenza, rotavirus)
Inactivated vaccines
• Inactivated whole agent vaccines: contain killed microorganisms or inactivated viruses
• Toxoid vaccines: toxins treated to destroy toxic part, retain antigenic epitopes (Diphtheria;Tetanus)
• Subunit vaccines: consist of key protein antigens or antigenic fragments from pathogen
• Recombinant subunit vaccines: subunit vaccines produced using genetically engineered microorganisms
• Conjugate vaccines: Typically used for targeting carbohydrate antigens; typically weak immunogens are
complexed with foreign protein carrier. (HiB; Pneumococcus; Meningitis)
• VLP (virus-like particle) vaccines: empty capsids produced by genetically engineered organisms
• Nucleic acid-based vaccines: DNA or RNA, encapsulated on in viral particle

18. mRNA Vaccines: General Strategy*
*Same for DNA vaccines

19. mRNA Vaccines: General Considerations

21. Antibody Blocking SARS-CoV2 from Binding to Target Cell of Host

22. Natural Immunity:
• The notion that natural immunity is better than than immunization is not supported by scientific data
• Many diseases have high case mortality rates making natural immunity impractical
• Many disease (Syphilis,Gonorrhea, HPV, HIV, Cholera, Influenza,Typhoid fever, etc.) do not illicit sufficient
natural immunity to prevent reinfection.
• Natural immunity does not yield life-long immunity except in rare cases
Immunization:
• Immunization can prevent many of the most deadly diseases that would otherwise yield high mortality or
lasting debilitation
• Preventable childhood diseases (rubella, measles, Hemophilus influenza, Pneumococcal pneumonia, chicken
pox) are not benign; complications are severe and can be fatal
• Vaccines to several important diseases still not available but research continues with some promising results
(HIV, Malaria,Tuberculosis, Lyme Disease,West Nile, Zika enchephalitis)
• Though the history of vaccine use has some troubling examples; vaccines today are safe and safeguarded by
procedures in place to protect the public.
Natural Immunity vs Immunization

23. Vaccinations Save Lives
 Immunization is one of modern medicine’s greatest success stories.
 Has probably had greatest impact on human health of any other medical procedure
 Example of how knowledge is power with respect to fighting disease
 Today, 30 diseases around the globe can be prevented by vaccination
 Though impossible to know for sure, theWHO conservatively estimates
that 2-3 million deaths prevented each year.
 Immunizations impact on various cancers is expanding rapidly
 Hope for controlling multi-drug resistant bacterial infections by
targeting microbial resistance mechanisms

24. MELANIE HARVEY
Professor of Chemistry at Johnson County Community College
Ph.D. in Chemistry fromVanderbilt University; postdoc work
at the University of Kentucky; teaching chemistry for 20 years;
Membership Chair for 2YC3, the national organization
for community college chemistry faculty sponsored by
the American Chemical Society

25. April 28, 2021 New York Times/Centers for Disease Control

26. By Susan Messina, Facebook and then Huff Post, Dec 6, 2017

27. JAMI FLYNN
Traveled all over the country and worked
with platform artists from all over the world;
worked with the Miss Kansas pageant
doing consultations, hair and makeup;
decades-long owner of Hair Art