MBIO 1010 / Topic 5b: Adaptive Immune Response

What are the four properties describing the adaptive immune response?

• Acquisition.

• Specificity.

• Memory.

• Tolerance.

What does “acquisition” mean?

A pathogen must be encountered before the adaptive immune response is mounted.

What does “specificity” mean?

A specific pathogen has a directed attack mounted against it.

What does “memory” mean?

A pathogen encounter must cause production of immune system cells and long living memory cells.

True or false: Immunity to one pathogen does not confer immunity to another.

True.

If the pathogen is encountered again, the _______ cells will mount a ______, _______ response due to the large number of _________ cells.

If the pathogen is encountered again, the memory cells will mount a faster, stronger response due to the large number of responding cells.

What does “tolerance” mean?

The inability to mount an adaptive immune system response against self-antigens.

True or false: Immune system cells that recognize self-antigens are boosted during development.

False. They are destroyed development.

If immune system cells recognize similar antigens to our own, there are two things that could happen. What are these two things?

1. Pathogen could evade adaptive immunity.

2. Autoimmune disease, producing antibodies against pathogens similar to a pathogen on your own cells, killing your own cells.

What is primary response? How is the adaptive immune response looking during this response? What is the major result?

The first time a new pathogen is encountered, wherein the adaptive immune response is weak and slow because it’s still in its “acquisition” stage. The major result is the production of immunologic memory.

What is immunologic memory?

Memory against intruder, so that you could have a better secondary response.

What is secondary response?

The next time the pathogen is encountered, wherein the adaptive immune response can be so quick and strong that the pathogen is unable to cause disease, i.e. immunity.

What’s an antigen, really?

A foreign substance getting into the body and is antibody-generating, reacting with said antibodies or receptors on adaptive immune system cells.

What is an antibody?

Protein made by the immune system binding to and inactivating foreign antigens.

What is an epitope?

The actual part of the antigen that can bind to an antibody.

The more epitopes on an antigen, the more ____________ it will be, and the more ______ population of ________ can be generated against it.

The more epitopes on an antigen, the more immunogenic it will be, and the more diverse population of antibodies can be generated against it.

What essentially separates an antigen from an immunogen?

An immunogen is a larger and more complex antigen with more epitopes.

What is a hapten?

Low molecular weight compound that is too small to be immunogenic on its own but can be highly antigenic once it binds to complex molecule.