Immunity

 The word “immunity” derives from the Latin word “immunis”, meaning exemption.

 Is a condition of being able to resist a particular disease especially through preventing

development of pathogenic microorganism or by counteracting the effects of its products.

 The healthy immune process is capable to recognize invading viruses, bacteria and also
produce antibodies to destroy or disable them.
 It is the ability of the body to restrict dangerous microorganisms or viruses from entering
it.

Types of immunity
1. Innate (Natural) Immunity
- It is the natural resistance components such as intact skin, salivary enzymes, and
neutrophils, natural killer cells, which provide an initial response against infection that is present
in an individual at birth prior to exposure to a pathogen or antigen.
2. Adaptive (Acquired) Immune System
-It is that which develops antibodies after an attack of an infectious disease or by a
pregnant mother passing through the placenta to a fetus or by vaccination.
3. Active Immunity
- It refers to the method of exposing the body to an antigen for generating an adaptive
immune response. The response takes days/ weeks to develop but may be long- lasting.
4. Passive Immunity
- It refers to the method of imparting IgG antibodies to keep safe against infection. It
gives immediate, but short- lived protection such as several weeks to 3 or 4 months at most. It is
occurs during pregnancy. The transfer of maternal tetanus antibody (mainly IgG) across the
placenta provides passive immune to newborn baby for several weeks/ months until such
antibody is degraded and lost.

History of immunology
Immunology
- Is a science that examines the structure and function of the immune system.
430 BC
- The earliest known mention of immunity was during the plague of Athens.
- Thucydides noted that people who had recovered from a previous bout of the disease
could nurse the sick without contracting the illness a second time.
- This observation of acquired immunity was later exploited by Louis Pasteur in his
development of vaccination and his proposed germ theory of disease.
 - Pasteur’s theory was in direct opposition to contemporary theories of disease, such as
the miasma theory.
- It was not until Robert Koch‘s 1891 proofs, for which he was awarded a Nobel Prize in
1905, that microorganisms were confirmed as the cause of infectious disease.
- Viruses were confirmed as human pathogens in 1901, with the discovery of the yellow
fever virus by Walter Reed.

History of theories of immunity

-A representation of the cholera epidemic of the nineteenth century.
-The prehistoric view of disease was that it was caused by supernatural forces, and that
illness was a form of theurgic punishment for “bad deeds” or “evil thoughts” visited upon
the soul by the gods or by one’s enemies.

 Between the time of Hippocrates and the 19th century

- When the foundations of the scientific method were laid, diseases were
attributed to an alteration or imbalance in one of the four humors (blood, phlegm,
yellow bile or black bile).
- Also popular during this time was the miasma theory.

Theories of immunity

1. Quantal theory
- States that individual cells of the immune system recognize and react to
antigens (both non-self and self) by proliferating and differentiating into effector
cells in an all-or-none (quantal) fashion.
2. Clonal selection theory of immunity
-Introduced by the Australian doctor Frank Macfarlane Burnet in 1957.
- States that in a pre-existing group of lymphocytes (specifically B cells), a
specific antigen only activates (i.e. selection) its counter-specific cell so that
particular cell is induced to multiply (producing its clones) for antibody
production.
3. Discontinuity theory of immunity
- According to this theory, the immune system detects antigenic variations
over time the derivative. Such a concept has been pioneered for adaptive immune
cells by Grossman and Paul for decades. The discontinuity theory of immunity
applies to both innate and adaptive immunity. Importantly, the immune system
can also adapt to slow or long-lasting modifications in the host, which it then
treats as a new reference point.