The Immune System By:Michael and Zack

Structure of Immune System What is the Immune System? A system designed to protect you against millions of bacteria, microbes, toxins, and viruses. Made up of white blood cells, proteins, tissues, and organs. Cells of the immune system are special types of leukocytes, called lymphocytes and phagocytes. Lymphocytes are cells that allow the body to remember and recognize previous invaders. Phagocytes are cells that chew up invading organisms.

Lymphocytes B cell T cell attacking cancer cell. The three types of lymphocytes are T cells, B cells, and NK cells. Lymphocytes start out in the bone marrow and either stay and mature into B cells, or they leave to the thymus gland and mature into a T cell. T cells: Make up 80% of the lymphocytes. Destroy the invaders the B cells identify. B cells: Are responsible for antibody-mediated immunity. B cells seek out its target and sends defenses. NK Cells: Are natural killer cells. They attack foreign cells, normal cells that are infected with viruses, and cancer cells. B cell

Phagocytes Neutrophil A number of cells are considered phagocytes. The most common type is called the neutrophil. Neutrophil: Primarily fights off bacteria. Neutrophils most important role is the defense of tissues outside the blood. Neutrophils leave the blood to find their targets and eventually kill them.

Functions of the Immune System When the skin is cut, a variety of infectious organisms, called pathogens, invade the break in the skin. Your immune system sends out white blood cells to destroy the antigens that are in your body. B cells produce antibodies, which are specialized proteins that lock onto specific antigens. From there, the T cells destroy the antigen. Your immune system also remembers certain organisms that came in contact with your body, like the common cold, so that if the organism ever came back into your body, your immune system will remember how to kill it. Cut in skin Antibodies developing

Pathogens Pathogens are microorganisms that cause disease. Types of Pathogens Viruses: Turns cells into virus makers. Fungi: Pierce cells and absorb the cells nutrients. Protozoans: Single celled eukaryotes. Parasites: An organism that lives in another organism and takes nutrients at the hosts expense.

Immunology Immunology is a field of biomedical science that covers the study of the immune system in all types of organisms. It deals with the characteristics, functioning in both health and disease, and malfunctions in the immune system. Resistance to Disease Resistance to a disease is called immunity. Edward Jenner performed an experiment that started immunology. He hypothesized that people with cowpox( a mild form of smallpox) couldn’t contract the deadly disease of smallpox. He thought that when people got cowpox, they couldn’t get smallpox because the body built up a defense against the cowpox. Whenever the smallpox tried to enter the body, the immune system would know how to destroy it because it already had a milder form of it before and remembered how to kill the smallpox. When people get a vaccine for a certain virus, it is either a dead or weakened pathogen so your body can build up a defense against it.

HIV/AIDS AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) is a very deadly disease in which the immune system is weakened and HIV interferes with your body’s ability to fight organisms that cause disease. AIDS attacks the T cells and T cells are the fighting cells that attack antigens. Treatment NRTI is Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors. NRTI are drugs that prevents HIV from spreading. Abacavir, Didanosine, and Tenofovir are just some of the NRTIs.

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