Professional Documents
Culture Documents
BSN 3
Please research the following topics and write them in them in the
notebook.
The human immune system acts as the guardian of our physical health by
providing safeguards to the outside invasion of pathogens, which include viruses
and bacteria. Over the past 100 years, many organisms have been recognized by
clinical researchers as pathogens, with the ability to cause harm to humans. This
has led to the creation of biologics (drugs and immunizations) to fight these
invaders at the cellular level.
Since the late 1970s, more than 70 million people have been infected worldwide,
with over 35 million deaths and approximately 38 million living with HIV. The
disease has caused both cultural upheaval and economic devastation in many
countries.
The Immune response is the body's ability to stay safe by affording protection against harmful
agents and involves lines of defense against most microbes as well as specialized and highly
specific response to a particular offender. This immune response classifies as either innate which
is non-specific and adaptive acquired which is highly specific. The innate response, often our
first line of defense against anything foreign, defends the body against a pathogen in a similar
fashion at all times. These natural mechanisms include the skin barrier, saliva, tears, various
cytokines, complement proteins, lysozyme, bacterial flora, and numerous cells including
neutrophils, basophils, eosinophils, monocytes, macrophages, reticuloendothelial system, natural
killer cells (NK cells), epithelial cells, endothelial cells, red blood cells, and platelets.
The adaptive acquired immune response will utilize the ability of specific lymphocytes and their
products (immunoglobulins, and cytokines) to generate a response against the invading
microbes and its typical features are[1][2][3]:
1
1. Specificity: as the triggering mechanism is a particular pathogen, immunogen or
antigen.
2. Heterogeneity: signifies the production of millions of different effectors of the immune
response (antibodies) against millions of intruders.
3. Memory: The immune system has the ability not only to recognize the pathogen on its
second contact but to generate a faster and stronger response.
The inflammatory immune response is an example of innate immunity as it blocks the entry of
invading pathogens through the skin, respiratory or gastrointestinal tract. If pathogens can breach
the epithelial surfaces, they encounter macrophages in the subepithelial tissues that will not only
attempt to engulf them but also produce cytokines to amplify the inflammatory response.
Active immunity results from the immune system's response to an antigen and therefore is
acquired. Immunity resulting from the transfer of immune cells or antibodies from an immunized
individual is passive immunity.
The immune system has evolved for the maintenance of homeostasis, as it can discriminate
between foreign antigens and self; however, when this specificity is affected an autoimmune
reaction or disease develops.
2
3. Management of Patients With Immunodeficiency
Treatment
Infection prevention
Infection can be prevented by advising patients to avoid environmental exposures and not giving
them live-virus vaccines (eg, varicella, rotavirus, measles, mumps, rubella, herpes zoster, yellow
fever, oral polio, intranasal influenza vaccines) or BCG (bacille Calmette-Guérin). Pneumococcal,
meningococcal, and Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) vaccines are the recommended risk-
specific vaccines, but their effectiveness varies with the degree of immunodeficiency.
Patients at risk of serious infections (eg, those with SCID, chronic granulomatous disease,
Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome, or asplenia) or of specific infections (eg, with Pneumocystis jirovecii in
patients with T-cell disorders) can be given prophylactic antibiotics
(eg, trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole 5 mg/kg orally twice a day).
To prevent graft-vs-host disease after transfusions, clinicians should use blood products from
cytomegalovirus-negative donors; the products should be filtered to remove white blood cells and
irradiated (15 to 30 Gy).
3
Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation using bone marrow, umbilical cord blood, or
adult peripheral blood stem cells is effective for lethal T-cell and other immunodeficiencies.
Pretransplantation chemotherapy is unnecessary in patients without T cells (eg, those with
SCID). However, patients with intact T-cell function or partial T-cell deficiencies (eg, Wiskott-
Aldrich syndrome, combined immunodeficiency with inadequate but not absent T-cell
function) require pretransplantation chemotherapy to ensure graft acceptance. When a
matched sibling donor is unavailable, haploidentical bone marrow from a parent can be
used. In such cases, mature T cells that cause graft-vs-host disease must be rigorously
depleted from parental marrow before it is given. Umbilical cord blood from an HLA-matched
sibling can also be used as a source of stem cells. In some cases, bone marrow or umbilical
cord blood from a matched unrelated donor can be used, but after transplantation,
immunosuppressants are required to prevent graft-vs-host disease, and their use delays
restoration of immunity.
4. Primary Immunodeficiencies
B cell deficiencies
T cell deficiencies
Combined B-cell and T-cell deficiencies
5. Secondary Immunodeficiencies
HIV-AIDS
6. Compare the causes of immediate and delayed type of immune
responses.
7. Describe the immune mechanism involved in type I, type II, type III, and
type IV hypersensitivity reactions.
8. State the difference between an atopic and nonatopic hypersensitivity
response.
9. Describe the pathogenesis of allergic rhinitis, food allergy, serum
sickness, arthus reaction, contact dermatitis, and hypersensitivity
pneumonitis.
10. Characterize the differences in latex allergy caused by type I, Ig E
– mediated response and that caused by type IV, cell – mediated
hypersensitivity response.
Thank You,