Immune System

Immune System

1) Compare and contrast "non-specific" and "specific" immune defenses.

2) What is an antigen? How are antigens used by the immune system of the host organism? What functions if any might these molecules have to the cell's that possess them?

2) Discuss the following for humoral immunity

What general role does the humoral immune response play in ridding the body of pathogens?

What types of cells initiate the immune response? What do we mean by immunocompetence? Where do those cellsdevelop immunocompetence?

Describe the primary immune response (e.g. lymphocyte activation,clonal selection, production of memory cells and effector cells...).

How do the effector cells of the immune response actually work todestroy or aid in the destruction of a pathogen?

What is the secondary immune response? Why is it more effective than the primary immune response? How does this relate to the concept of developing immunity to a given pathogen? What is the difference between passive and active immunity?

What are the roles of helper T-cells in this immune response?

What is an antibody? What types of cells produce antibodies? Describe the structure of an antibody? How does this structure relate to antibody/antigen specificity and antibody effector function?

3) What is a vaccine? How does it work? Is this an example of acquiring active or passive immunity? Explain. Why hasn't a vaccine been developed that will universally confer immunity to the flu or the common cold?

4) In most cases the immune system is prepared for an attack by potential pathogens, even for those that your body has never encountered. This is one reason why we recover from most pathogenic infections. How does the immune system acquire this ability?

7) Discuss the following for the cell mediated immune response:

What general role does the cell mediated immune response play in ridding the body of pathogens?
What immune cells initiate the cell mediated immune response?
What are the roles of helper T-cells in the immune response?
What are MHC proteins? How do they function in cell-mediated immunity?
What are the roles of cytotoxic T-cells?

8) Erythrocytes lack MHC proteins. What are the some of the antigens on these cells that allow the body to distinguish them from non self cells? List all of the possible blood types. Without considering other antigens in blood, which of these blood types could be considered a universal donor of blood and why? A universal receiver, and why?

9) Discuss the following for AIDS:

What virus causes it and what types of cells does it infect?

Why is it so hard for the immune system to control HIV compared to other viruses?

Why has this disease spread so rapidly through the human population?

Why has a vaccine been difficult to produce?

What are the routes of transmission?