Test Your Knowledge of the Adaptive Immune Response

7 Questions

What are the two branches of the adaptive immune system, and what types of pathogens do they target?

The two branches of the adaptive immune system are humoral immunity and cellular immunity. Humoral immunity targets freely circulating pathogens, while cellular immunity eliminates intracellular pathogens, foreign tissue, and tumor cells.

What is the primary and secondary response of the adaptive immune system?

The adaptive immunity has a primary response to the first contact with an antigen and a secondary or memory response to subsequent contact with the same antigen.

What do B cells produce in humoral immunity?

B cells produce antibodies in humoral immunity.

What do T cells recognize in cellular immunity?

T cells recognize antigens presented on MHC in cellular immunity.

What are cytokines, and what can overproduction of cytokines lead to?

Cytokines are chemical messengers that allow cells of the immune system to communicate with each other. Overproduction of cytokines can lead to tissue damage in a cytokine storm.

What are the different types of cytokines, and what cells do they activate?

Interleukins, chemokines, interferons, tumor necrosis factors, and hematopoietic cytokines are all types of cytokines that activate natural killer cells, macrophages, and cytotoxic T cells.

What are antigens and antibodies, and what are epitopes?

Antigens are chemical substances that cause the body to produce specific antibodies, and antibodies are formed against specific regions on antigens called epitopes.

Study Notes

Adaptive Immune Response

The adaptive immune system is divided into humoral immunity and cellular immunity, which function interdependently to protect the body.
Humoral immunity depends on B cells and targets freely circulating pathogens, while cellular immunity depends on T cells and eliminates intracellular pathogens, foreign tissue, and tumor cells.
Adaptive immunity reacts specifically to microbial infections and has a primary response to the first contact with an antigen and a secondary or memory response to subsequent contact with the same antigen.
B cells produce antibodies in humoral immunity, while T cells recognize antigens presented on MHC in cellular immunity.
Lymphocytes mature in red bone marrow to become B cells, while those that migrate through the thymus become T cells.
Cytokines are chemical messengers that allow cells of the immune system to communicate with each other, and overproduction of cytokines can lead to tissue damage in a cytokine storm.
Interleukins, chemokines, interferons, tumor necrosis factors, and hematopoietic cytokines are all types of cytokines that activate natural killer cells, macrophages, and cytotoxic T cells.
Antigens are chemical substances that cause the body to produce specific antibodies, and antibodies are formed against specific regions on antigens called epitopes.
Antigens are usually proteins or large polysaccharides, while haptens can elicit the production of antibodies when combined with a protein.
Epitopes are components of antigens, and each antigen carries more than one epitope, while each antibody molecule has two binding sites that can attach to a specific epitope on an antigen.
The thymus is a lymphoid organ that produces T-lymphocytes for the immune system, while MHC is a set of cell surface proteins essential for the acquired immune system to identify foreign molecules.
Understanding the dual nature of the adaptive immune system and the different types of cytokines and antigens is crucial for developing effective treatments and vaccines for infectious diseases and other immune-related disorders.