BIRLA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE (BITS)

Pilani 333031, Rajasthan, India

Second Semester 2015-2016

Immunology (BIO F342)

Mid Semester test Closed book March 14, 2016 90 min Total Marks: 50
Notes: Attempt all parts of the question together.
Disorderly/irregularly provided answers will be penalized.
Answer briefly and to the point only.
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1. A health problem such as, Crohn's disease (CD) is the best example to understand the microbial
homeostasis in the human gut. Express your views that in what way ‘homeostatsis’ is an
appropriate term to describe this association? Also discuss what happens to the microbial
homeostasis in case of CD and why? [4]

2. Justify the following statement being either true or false. Correct the false statements with
appropriate logic: [12]
a. Mouse MHC has dissimilar binding affinity to self and non self peptides.
b. The immunogenicity of an antigen is not influenced by the host genotype.
c. A vaccine termed as ‘adsorbed’ may not be highly effective for human use in comparison to
the non-adsorbed vaccine.
d. Genome deletion might be evident in lymphocytes, especially the B cells.
e. The nature of adaptive immunity being highly conserved is beneficial for mammals.
f. Memory cells are the basis for a strong secondary humoral immune response.

3. Dendritic cells (DCs) are key regulators of immunity against a vast array of pathogens and
cancers. Human Immunodefeciency Virus (HIV) has evolved strategies to evade DC-mediated
antiviral immunity. In addition, the virus also exploits DCs as shuttles to promote its own
dissemination. Based on this statement, answer to the following questions [2+3+2]
a. Define the pivotal role of DCs in immunity.
b. In what way HIV might interfere the DC-mediated antiviral immunity? Explain. (Consider that
the virus is not killing the DCs here).
c. As we know that the fast mutation rate in HIV is the major reason behind our failure to
develop a protective vaccine. If we do not have any vaccine in coming 500 years then what
you think the virus will wipe the human population from this planet? Explain your answer
based on the discussion in class.

4. For each cause, indicate which of the following branches of immune system is/are affected in
terms of Cellular (C), Humoral (H) or Both types of immunity. Also justify your answer. [8]
a. A failure of T cells development
b. Somatic recombination deficiency
c. Absence of β2 Microglobulin
d. Lack of MHC class II molecules

5. Differentiate between the followings along with their importance in immunity [6]
a. Epitope and paratope
b. Variable and hypervariable region
c. J chain and J segment

6. The complement system is critical for controlling many microbial infections. In case of
Streptococcus pneumoniae, increasing bacterial chain length sensitizes this pathogen to
complement system. However, minimizing the chain length induces bacterial infection.

……..….PTO….………
1
 Furthermore, the complement-dependent killing of bacteria protects the host. Therefore, increasing
pathogen size, whether by natural changes in cellular morphology or via the deposition of host
molecules promotes complement-dependent killing (Adopted from Dalia and Weiser. 2011. Cell Host
Microbe.10(5):486-96). Answer the following questions based on this information: [2+2+2]
a. Can complement system control viral infections? Explain.
b. In what way opsonophagocytic can protect a host against microbial infection. Explain.
c. Explain in what way our immune system can increase the size of a microbe to facilitate its
clearance from the body.

7. Answer the following questions briefly based on class presentations. [2+3+2]

a. What is the purpose of using the blocking buffer?
b. Diagrammatically show the use of streptavidin biotin staining method for detecting the antigen
antibody complex formation. Mention the advantages of this method.
c. One of the approaches for the treatment of Zika virus is the application of GM mosquitoes.
Comments on the effectiveness of this method.

………….. All the bests …………..