Immunotherapy Flashcards
(53 cards)
What is autoinflammation?
Activation of innate immune response without an apparent cause
What is autoimmunity?
T and B cells attack healthy tissues, cuased by multiple factors
What causes autoinflammation?
Rare monogenic autoinflammatory diseases
What causes autoimmunity?
Rare monogenic autoimmune diseases
What happens in anti-tumour response?
T cells recognise tumour antigens and trigger T cell activation
What happens in immume evasion by tumours?
There is a loss of tumour antigen due to a decrease in MHC and expression of non-classical HLA molecules. This means that T cells are not able to recognise tumour cells
How does T cell inhibition occur?
Tumours produce immunosuppressive cytokines as well as displaying inhibiting ligands that are recognised by T cells
How do immunosuppressive microenvironments work?
Inhibits T cell activation or differentiation into Th1 and CD8+ cells
What do immunomodulators take the form of?
Small moleucle drugs
Antibodies
Cytokines
Cell Therapy
What are major differences between small molecules and biologics?
SM have low MW, high permeability and are preferred orally
Biologics have large MW, low permeability and preferred parentally
What are cytokines?
Family of small molecules used for communication in the immune system. They play a diverse role in the regulation of immune response
What are cytokines important for?
The development or differentiation of immune cells in bone marrow
An example of pro-inflammatory cytokine
TNFα
An example of an anti-inflammatory cytokine
IL-10
What is recombinant DNA technology?
Joins DNA from different sources to multiply the gene or to produce the protein product
Transfer of genes to another organism for propagation or expression
Production of recombinant human cytokines
Human gene for the cytokine is inserted into a vector and the vector/gene combo is introduced into a cell which produces the protein product
What is a vector in recombinant cytokine production?
A DNA molecule used to carry the gene of interest into a cell and drive its expression
What are B cells?
Cells of the adaptive immune system that express antigen receptors
What are antibodies?
Antibodies are secreted versions of B cell receptors and have the same antigen specificity as the B cell
How are antibodies produced in animals?
- Inject antigen into rabbit - usually a protein or peptide
- Antigen activates B cells
- Plasma B cells produce polyclonal antibodies
- Obtain antiserum from rabbit containing polyclonal antibodies
How are self-antigens recognised?
Most lymphocytes with self-reactive receptors are killed during development
If they survive, they are functionally inactive
What is the structure of an antibody?
2 heavy chains and 2 light chains
What is the complementary determining region?
Short, hyper-variable sequences of amino acids in the variable region of the antibody
What is the Fc region of an antibody?
Binds to cell surface receptors and complements proteins to mediate antibody function
