What are the 2 types of immunisation?
Adapted (active)
Innate (passive)
What is the difference between adapted and innate immunity?
Adapted is altered by some mechanism whereas innate is naturally within the organism.
Give some examples of adapted immunity.
Infection/exposure, immunisation.
Give some examples of innate immunity.
Placental transfer of IgB, immune cellular therapy.
What are the advantages of innate immunity?
Immediate protection, quick fix,
What are the disadvantages of innate immunity?
Short term, no immunological memory, serum sickness
What are natural examples of active immunity?
Infection / exposure
What are artificial examples of active immunity?
Vaccination
What are the advantages of active immunity?
Long term immunity
Immunological memory
What are the disadvantages of active immunity?
No immediate response but the response is faster and better in the next antigen encounter.
What initiates the response in active immunity?
Antigen exposure.
What is vaccination?
Vaccination is the administration of antigenic material (a vaccine) to stimulate an individual’s immune system to develop adaptive immunity to a pathogen.
Give some examples of common vaccinations.
MMR (measles/mumps/rubella), tetanus, polio etc
What is a vaccine that kills the whole organism?
Target organism is destroyed, effective and relatively easy to manufacture, booster shots required.
What is a vaccine of the attenuated whole organism?
Avirulent strain of the target organism is attenuated, can be more effective than if killed, stimulates natural infection response, refrigeration of vaccine required.
What are the advantages of sub-unit vaccinations with recombinant proteins?
Generally safe, easy to standardise.
What are the disadvantages of sub-unit vaccinations with recombinant proteins?
Not very immunogenic without an effective adjuvant.
What is a toxin vaccination?
A toxin vaccination is when a toxin is treated with formalin- it retains its antigenicity but loses its toxicity.
What are toxins treated with to produce toxin vaccinations?
Formalin.
What are temporary patient limits on vaccination?
Pregnancy- cannot be given live-attenuated vaccines.
Febrile illness.
What are permanent patient limits on vaccination?
Allergy, immunocompromised (may develop real disease).
What is herd immunity?
Herd immunity describes the fact that unvaccinated people are often more protected against certain diseases due to mass vaccination of the general public- they are ‘herded’ to increase their superficial immunity.
What makes a good vaccine?
Immunological memory
Potent antibody response
CD8+ cytotoxic cell response
CD4+ helper cell response
What is antigenic drift?
Drift arising from point mutations.
Why should vaccination be persistent?
Should give life-long protection.
What is the cold chain network?
The network limiting vaccination through keeping them cold through transit from production to administration.
Why are neonates more vulnerable during vaccination?
Encapsulated bacteria, weaker immune system, short term antibody production.
Why are the elderly more vulnerable during vaccination?
Reduced efficacy/response to vaccination, oglioclonal responses lack specificity, reduced survival niches of plasma cell (weakened immune systems).
What is a conjugate vaccine?
The antigen is the carbohydrate capsule. Carbohydrates are poor antigens as they don’t stimulate the immune system as much as protein antigens- usually conjugated to a protein.
Why are carbohydrate capsule antigens usually conjugated to a protein?
Increased stimulation of immune system as carbohydrates are poor single antigens.
Can vaccines control cancer?
70% HPV strains vaccinated against, with 100% of them linking to cervical cancer. More developments needed.
What are vaccinomics?
Personalised vaccines- centred around individual patient profile in terms of genetics etc.
What are humans the only natural host of?
PV- important in vaccination as there is no other vaccine reservoir.
