Josie Kennedy For meeting 9/19

Immune system: A system of biological structures and processes within an organism that protects against disease.
Identify incoming enemies, eliminate them, and keep flies on them in case they ever come back Pathogen: An agent (virus or organism) that produces disease Two responses to pathogens: - Innate Immunity (Nonspecific): Responds to all pathogens the same way very quickly (whether your body has seen that pathogen or not. Doesnt care what its killing (virus vs bacteria vs fungus) - Acquired Immunity (Adaptive): Develops more slowly, body needs to learn pathogen before it defeats it. *Every animal has an innate immune system (even sponges) but only vertebrates have acquired immunity. First line of defense: Skin and mucous membranes. - Mucous membranes: Line all of your internal surfaces that are exposed to outside (Lungs,inside of nose) Provide barrier for microbes trying to sneak in. Produce mucus which traps microbes and helps to sweep them away Second line of defense: Inflammatory response = Specialized cells in your connective tissue Mast cells: Constantly search for suspicious objects (usually unknown proteins) and then release signaling molecules like histamine when they find them. Histamine: Makes blood vessels more permeable, allows fluid to flow to affected area, causes inflammation and brings in white blood cells. Allergic reaction: When something is detected that is not actually a danger (pollen, dust, peanuts) and your immune system triggers an inflammatory response. Antihistamines: To suppress the histamine trigger over nothing

White Blood Cells (Leukocytes) : Have VIP access to anywhere in the body (exception: CNS, brain, spinal cord) Can move through the circulatory system and when they get to a place theyre needed, they can send a signal to capillary to open a gap between its cells. The Leukocyte oozes through gap to the sight of the infection (CALLED DIAPEDESIS). Lots of different kinds of Leukocytes.

Innate immune system: Phagocytes - any cells that ingest

microorganisms through the process of Phagocytosis. Can chase down invading cells, grab them, and then engulf them. Neutrophils: Most common Leukocyte/Phagocytosis in mammals, move around the bloodstream and can get places. Once a neutrophil kills a microbe, they die and BECOME PUS. Macrophages: Biggest and baddest of the Phagocytes. Big eaters that dont travel a lot, hang out in your various organs. Kill outside invaders, they also detect when one of your cells has gone rogue (cancer cell) and kill those to. Unlike neutrophils, they dont die one they have killed a bacterium (can eat up to 100). Natural killer cells: Only phagocyte in the innate immune system that kills other human cells. Healthy cells have a protein on surface called MHC 1 (major histocompatibility complex). When cells are infected (w/ virus, cancer) they stop producing protein. The Natural Killers go around and check up on cells, and when it finds one thats not normal it binds with it and secretes an enzyme that dissolves its membrane. Dendritic cells: Located on surface of your body, comes in contact with the environment. Nose, skin, stomach and intestines. Eat pathogens, carry information about them back to spleen/lymph nodes, passes intelligence to acquired immune system. Transfer to innate to acquired. Acquired immune system has to: Learn as much as it can about every pathogen it interacts with, store that info, use it to invent defenses against them. Start to build it after you are born, harvesting bacteria and other things (good/bad). System keeps eye out for any foreign substance. A toxin, virus, bacteria, or even parts of those things could be tell tale signs of a bad guy. We call these antigens. Anything that causes your immune system to ID a pathogen and then create a antibody against it.

Antibody: Are not cells - they are highly specialized proteins produced by B cells to recognize intruders. Cant kill invaders themselves (just swarm and make it hard for invader to move). They serve as tags. Attaching themselves to the intruder, and releasing chemical signals to nearby phagocytes.

Acquired immune system: Has its own types of leucocytes, not called phagocytes.
Lymphocytes:Go after specific things they already know about. Two major types. T Cells: Form in your bone marrow, then migrate and mature in the thymus gland. B Cells: Form and mature in the bone marrow. * Memorization - Ts mature in thymus, Bs mature in bone. We have two different types of lymphocytes because we have two different types of acquired immunity. Cell-mediated response: When the cells are already infected. Humoral response: When the infection is just in the bodys fluid, not in cells. Cell- Mediated: Usually involves T cells, and there are many different types of T Cells.

Helper T Cells: They cant kill pathogens, but they activate and direct the cells that can kill the pathogen. They can detect antigen-presentation, and comes over to the antigen and they communicate chemically, then the Helper T Cell gives off a chemical called Interleukin 2, which tells all other lymphocytes in the area there is a problem over here. Then the Helper T cells starts to make copies of itself, most become Effector T Cells. Others become Memory T cells. Effector T Cells: Travel around creating proteins that stimulate other nearby lymphocytes to take action. Memory T cells: The ones that keep a record of intruders and provide us with future immunity against it. Cytotoxic T cells:When a cell is super duper infected, it will start presenting antigens asking for a mercy killing. Once the Cytotoxic T cell gets the message from the helper T cells that there is an infection, it starts patrolling for any normal cells presenting antigens. When it finds one, it latches onto it and releases

enzymes that create holes in the cells membrane and eventually breaks down the whole cell (killing pathogen also). Humoral Response: Designed to catch pathogens that are floating around in your body that havent invaded cells yet. Primary players = B Cells Are constantly patrolling your bloodstream until they get a signal from a helper T cell that something is wrong. B cells are covered in antibodies that can detect and bind to specific antigen. Single B cell can be cover with up to 100,000 antibodies. When a B cell bumps into a pathogen that it recognizes, it attached and starts cloning. Suddenly, there are tons of that B cell with the same receptor. Most turn into plasma or effector cells, which use antibody as a blueprint to create many antibodies for that specific pathogen. Once antibodies are released, they bind to the pathogens until a phagocyte can come and kill it. The rest of the cloned cells mostly become memory cells, which have the same receptor, providing future immunity from the invader.