Immunology

qas: question: In general, what does immunology study?
answers: text: immune systems in all organisms

question: Immunology studies the functioning of the immune system in which two states of being?
answers: text: both health and diseases

question: Name three types of immunological disorders?
answers: text: autoimmune diseases, hypersensitivities, immune deficiency, and transplant rejection

question: Immunology studies the immune system in which three stages of existence?
answers: text: in vitro, in situ, and in vivo

question: What disciplines in medicine have particularly strong immunology applications?
answers: text: organ transplantation, oncology, virology, bacteriology, parasitology, psychiatry, and dermatology
context: Immunology is a branch of biomedical science that covers the study of immune systems in all organisms. It charts, measures, and contextualizes the: physiological functioning of the immune system in states of both health and diseases; malfunctions of the immune system in immunological disorders (such as autoimmune diseases, hypersensitivities, immune deficiency, and transplant rejection); the physical, chemical and physiological characteristics of the components of the immune system in vitro, in situ, and in vivo. Immunology has applications in numerous disciplines of medicine, particularly in the fields of organ transplantation, oncology, virology, bacteriology, parasitology, psychiatry, and dermatology.

qas: question: The term immunology is derived from a Latin word that means what?
answers: text: exempt

question: What are the major organs of the immune system?
answers: text: thymus and bone marrow, and chief lymphatic tissues such as spleen, tonsils, lymph vessels, lymph nodes, adenoids, and liver

question: Who originally discovered these parts of the immune system?
answers: text: early physicians

question: How do physicians study a patient's immune system organs in emergency situations?
answers: text: surgically excised for examination while patients are still alive

question: Which portions of the immune system can be safely removed in these emergency cases?
answers: text: thymus, spleen, bone marrow, lymph nodes and other lymphatic tissues
context: Prior to the designation of immunity from the etymological root immunis, which is Latin for "exempt"; early physicians characterized organs that would later be proven as essential components of the immune system. The important lymphoid organs of the immune system are the thymus and bone marrow, and chief lymphatic tissues such as spleen, tonsils, lymph vessels, lymph nodes, adenoids, and liver. When health conditions worsen to emergency status, portions of immune system organs including the thymus, spleen, bone marrow, lymph nodes and other lymphatic tissues can be surgically excised for examination while patients are still alive.

qas: question: The structure of immune system components can be described as what?
answers: text: typically cellular in nature

question: Are immune tissues typically fixed with specific organs usually?
answers: text: not associated with any specific organ

question: What is one way the cellular structures of the immune system are housed in the body?
answers: text: embedded

question: What is another way these tissues are housed within the body?
answers: text: circulating
context: Many components of the immune system are typically cellular in nature and not associated with any specific organ; but rather are embedded or circulating in various tissues located throughout the body.

qas: question: Which two fields of study are associated with immunology?
answers: text: epidemiology and medicine

question: Immunology studies how which three areas impact one another?
answers: text: the body systems, pathogens, and immunity

question: When was the first written mention of immunity as it pertains to the body?
answers: text: 430 BCE

question: Which Greek historian made that notation?
answers: text: Thucydides

question: When did immunology start to become codified as a scientific theory?
answers: text: 19th and 20th centuries
context: Classical immunology ties in with the fields of epidemiology and medicine. It studies the relationship between the body systems, pathogens, and immunity. The earliest written mention of immunity can be traced back to the plague of Athens in 430 BCE. 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. Many other ancient societies have references to this phenomenon, but it was not until the 19th and 20th centuries before the concept developed into scientific theory.

qas: question: What is the basic, primitive part of the immune system known as?
answers: text: innate immune system

question: Vertebrates also have what type of immune system component?
answers: text: acquired or adaptive immune system

question: What is one type of adaptive immune system component?
answers: text: humoral (or antibody)

question: Name the other type of adaptive immune system component?
answers: text: cell-mediated

question: The total immune system is generally composed of what types of structures?
answers: text: molecular and cellular components
context: The study of the molecular and cellular components that comprise the immune system, including their function and interaction, is the central science of immunology. The immune system has been divided into a more primitive innate immune system and, in vertebrates, an acquired or adaptive immune system. The latter is further divided into humoral (or antibody) and cell-mediated components.

qas: question: Humoral immunology involves the interaction of what two elements?
answers: text: antibodies and antigens

question: What are antibodies comprised of?
answers: text: specific proteins

question: What cells produce antibodies?
answers: text: B lymphocytes

question: The term "antigen" is rooted in what two words?
answers: text: "anti"body "gen"erators

question: Immunology is the study of what type of responses to antibodies and antigens?
answers: text: cellular response
context: The humoral (antibody) response is defined as the interaction between antibodies and antigens. Antibodies are specific proteins released from a certain class of immune cells known as B lymphocytes, while antigens are defined as anything that elicits the generation of antibodies ("anti"body "gen"erators). Immunology rests on an understanding of the properties of these two biological entities and the cellular response to both.

qas: question: In the field of immunology, what aspect is becoming more specialized?
answers: text: research

question: What new areas are immunologists studying with more frequency?
answers: text: non-classical models of immunity

question: The latest research into newer aspects of immunology is focused on what three elements of the body?
answers: text: cells, organs and systems

question: These three elements of the body are of new interest for what reason?
answers: text: not previously associated with the immune system
context: Immunological research continues to become more specialized, pursuing non-classical models of immunity and functions of cells, organs and systems not previously associated with the immune system (Yemeserach 2010).

qas: question: The study of diseases caused by immune system disorders is called?
answers: text: Clinical immunology

question: What are three problems of the immune system studied by clinical immunology?
answers: text: failure, aberrant action, and malignant growth

question: Where can these three elements occur in the immune system?
answers: text: cellular elements

question: What else does clinical immunology concern itself with?
answers: text: diseases of other systems

question: Why does clinical immunology extend to those areas?
answers: text: immune reactions play a part in the pathology and clinical features
context: Clinical immunology is the study of diseases caused by disorders of the immune system (failure, aberrant action, and malignant growth of the cellular elements of the system). It also involves diseases of other systems, where immune reactions play a part in the pathology and clinical features.

qas: question: What is a type of immune system disorder?
answers: text: hypersensitivities

question: What are some examples of hypersensitivities?
answers: text: asthma and other allergies

question: What characterizes a hypersensitivity?
answers: text: respond inappropriately to otherwise harmless compounds.
context: Other immune system disorders include various hypersensitivities (such as in asthma and other allergies) that respond inappropriately to otherwise harmless compounds.

qas: question: What is the most famous immune system disease?
answers: text: AIDS

question: What kind of disease is AIDS?
answers: text: an immunodeficiency

question: Which types of cells are suppressed by AIDS?
answers: text: CD4+ ("helper") T cells, dendritic cells and macrophages

question: What virus specifically suppresses those cells?
answers: text: Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)
context: The most well-known disease that affects the immune system itself is AIDS, an immunodeficiency characterized by the suppression of CD4+ ("helper") T cells, dendritic cells and macrophages by the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).

qas: question: What are the four factors that determine how the body reacts to an antigen?
answers: text: person's age, antigen type, maternal factors and the area

question: Why are newborns described as being physiologically immunodeficient?
answers: text: both their innate and adaptive immunological responses are greatly suppressed

question: Newborns are particularly susceptible to infections caused by?
answers: text: low virulence organisms like Staphylococcus and Pseudomonas

question: What activity is also greatly reduced in newborn infants?
answers: text: phagocytic

question: Antigen cells in newborns are also struggle to do this?
answers: text: activate T cells
context: The body’s capability to react to antigen depends on a person's age, antigen type, maternal factors and the area where the antigen is presented. Neonates are said to be in a state of physiological immunodeficiency, because both their innate and adaptive immunological responses are greatly suppressed. Once born, a child’s immune system responds favorably to protein antigens while not as well to glycoproteins and polysaccharides. In fact, many of the infections acquired by neonates are caused by low virulence organisms like Staphylococcus and Pseudomonas. In neonates, opsonic activity and the ability to activate the complement cascade is very limited. For example, the mean level of C3 in a newborn is approximately 65% of that found in the adult. Phagocytic activity is also greatly impaired in newborns. This is due to lower opsonic activity, as well as diminished up-regulation of integrin and selectin receptors, which limit the ability of neutrophils to interact with adhesion molecules in the endothelium. Their monocytes are slow and have a reduced ATP production, which also limits the newborn's phagocytic activity. Although, the number of total lymphocytes is significantly higher than in adults, the cellular and humoral immunity is also impaired. Antigen-presenting cells in newborns have a reduced capability to activate T cells. Also, T cells of a newborn proliferate poorly and produce very small amounts of cytokines like IL-2, IL-4, IL-5, IL-12, and IFN-g which limits their capacity to activate the humoral response as well as the phagocitic activity of macrophage. B cells develop early during gestation but are not fully active.

qas: question: In babies, what is another element impacting immune response?
answers: text: Maternal factors

question: Newborns can acquire antibodies from the mother through what means?
answers: text: breast milk

question: For how long do these antibodies have an effect on infants?
answers: text: up to 18 months

question: At 6 to 9 months, an infant's immune system begins to respond to which proteins?
answers: text: glycoproteins

question: The difference in responses in infant immune systems is the cause of what?
answers: text: distinct time frames found in vaccination schedules
context: Maternal factors also play a role in the body’s immune response. At birth, most of the immunoglobulin present is maternal IgG. Because IgM, IgD, IgE and IgA don’t cross the placenta, they are almost undetectable at birth. Some IgA is provided by breast milk. These passively-acquired antibodies can protect the newborn for up to 18 months, but their response is usually short-lived and of low affinity. These antibodies can also produce a negative response. If a child is exposed to the antibody for a particular antigen before being exposed to the antigen itself then the child will produce a dampened response. Passively acquired maternal antibodies can suppress the antibody response to active immunization. Similarly the response of T-cells to vaccination differs in children compared to adults, and vaccines that induce Th1 responses in adults do not readily elicit these same responses in neonates. Between six to nine months after birth, a child’s immune system begins to respond more strongly to glycoproteins, but there is usually no marked improvement in their response to polysaccharides until they are at least one year old. This can be the reason for distinct time frames found in vaccination schedules.

qas: question: What is the primary trigger for immunological changes in teens?
answers: text: hormones

question: What specific hormone catalyzes these changes in females?
answers: text: 17-β-oestradiol (an oestrogen)

question: Which specific hormone precipitates the change in immunology in males?
answers: text: testosterone

question: Adolescent immunological changes can also result in what?
answers: text: increased risk in developing pubescent and post-pubescent autoimmunity

question: Evidence suggests that receptors on B cells may do what?
answers: text: detect sex hormones in the system
context: During adolescence, the human body undergoes various physical, physiological and immunological changes triggered and mediated by hormones, of which the most significant in females is 17-β-oestradiol (an oestrogen) and, in males, is testosterone. Oestradiol usually begins to act around the age of 10 and testosterone some months later. There is evidence that these steroids act directly not only on the primary and secondary sexual characteristics but also have an effect on the development and regulation of the immune system, including an increased risk in developing pubescent and post-pubescent autoimmunity. There is also some evidence that cell surface receptors on B cells and macrophages may detect sex hormones in the system.

qas: question: The routine practice of immunology can best be characterized as?
answers: text: strongly experimental

question: What are two opposing theories of early 20th century immunology?
answers: text: "cellular" and "humoral"

question: Cellular immunology expressed the theory that what cells caused immune responses?
answers: text: phagocytes

question: Humoral immunology theorized that the origin of the immune system lay in what?
answers: text: soluble components (molecules)

question: Rather than cells, in humoral immunology where did the molecules that cause immune response reside?
answers: text: the organism’s “humors”
context: Immunology is strongly experimental in everyday practice but is also characterized by an ongoing theoretical attitude. Many theories have been suggested in immunology from the end of the nineteenth century up to the present time. The end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century saw a battle between "cellular" and "humoral" theories of immunity. According to the cellular theory of immunity, represented in particular by Elie Metchnikoff, it was cells – more precisely, phagocytes – that were responsible for immune responses. In contrast, the humoral theory of immunity, held by Robert Koch and Emil von Behring, among others, stated that the active immune agents were soluble components (molecules) found in the organism’s “humors” rather than its cells.

qas: question: What medical scientist first proposed the clonal selection theory of immunology?
answers: text: Frank Burnet

question: What triggers an immune response according to CST?
answers: text: self/nonself distinction

question: In CST, what triggers a destructive immune response?
answers: text: "nonself" entities (e.g., pathogens, an allograft)

question: What property of T cells caused modification of CST?
answers: text: the complex "two-signal" activation

question: When was clonal selection theory first proposed?
answers: text: In the mid-1950s
context: In the mid-1950s, Frank Burnet, inspired by a suggestion made by Niels Jerne, formulated the clonal selection theory (CST) of immunity. On the basis of CST, Burnet developed a theory of how an immune response is triggered according to the self/nonself distinction: "self" constituents (constituents of the body) do not trigger destructive immune responses, while "nonself" entities (e.g., pathogens, an allograft) trigger a destructive immune response. The theory was later modified to reflect new discoveries regarding histocompatibility or the complex "two-signal" activation of T cells. The self/nonself theory of immunity and the self/nonself vocabulary have been criticized, but remain very influential.

qas: question: What discipline can undergraduate students interested in general health study?
answers: text: Bioscience

question: Immunology is a branch of what larger field of study?
answers: text: bioscience

question: The goal of an immunologist is to study what beings?
answers: text: humans and animals

question: The biggest part of an immunologist's job is what?
answers: text: research

question: What two conditions apply to good immunological study?
answers: text: effective yet consistent research
context: Bioscience is the overall major in which undergraduate students who are interested in general well-being take in college. Immunology is a branch of bioscience for undergraduate programs but the major gets specified as students move on for graduate program in immunology. The aim of immunology is to study the health of humans and animals through effective yet consistent research, (AAAAI, 2013). The most important thing about being immunologists is the research because it is the biggest portion of their jobs.

qas: question: Most graduate schools specializing in immunology follow what organization's parameters?
answers: text: AAI courses

question: What is the name of the immunology school at Mount Sinai?
answers: text: Icahn School of Medicine

question: AAI immunology courses include what two components?
answers: text: Introductory Course and an Advance Course

question: What does the introductory AAI immunology course do?
answers: text: gives students an overview of the basics of immunology

question: The Langone Medical Center is part of what college?
answers: text: New York University
context: Most graduate immunology schools follow the AAI courses immunology which are offered throughout numerous schools in the United States. For example, in New York State, there are several universities that offer the AAI courses immunology: Albany Medical College, Cornell University, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York University Langone Medical Center, University at Albany (SUNY), University at Buffalo (SUNY), University of Rochester Medical Center and Upstate Medical University (SUNY). The AAI immunology courses include an Introductory Course and an Advance Course. The Introductory Course is a course that gives students an overview of the basics of immunology.

qas: question: Part 1 of the AAI introductory immunology course is meant to be what?
answers: text: an introduction to the basic principles of immunology

question: Part 2 of the AAI introductory immunology course revolves around what?
answers: text: clinically-oriented lecture series

question: What pre-requisite should enrollees in the advanced immunology course have?
answers: text: a background of the principles of immunology

question: How long does it typically take to earn a Master's degree?
answers: text: two years of study

question: What program requires an additional two years of study?
answers: text: a doctoral programme
context: In addition, this Introductory Course gives students more information to complement general biology or science training. It also has two different parts: Part I is an introduction to the basic principles of immunology and Part II is a clinically-oriented lecture series. On the other hand, the Advanced Course is another course for those who are willing to expand or update their understanding of immunology. It is advised for students who want to attend the Advanced Course to have a background of the principles of immunology. Most schools require students to take electives in other to complete their degrees. A Master’s degree requires two years of study following the attainment of a bachelor's degree. For a doctoral programme it is required to take two additional years of study.