Chapter 12
Immunology Applications
By Boundless
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Passive immunization can be exogenously administered (artificial) or transferred from mother to fetus (natural).
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Vaccination is a proven way to prevent and even eradicate widespread outbreaks of life-threatening infectious diseases.
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New vaccines are being developed to control recent infectious disease epidemics and cancers.
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Vaccines carry risks, ranging from rashes or tenderness at the site of injection to fever-associated seizures.
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Immunoassays are laboratory techniques based on the detection of antibody production in response to foreign antigens.
Antibodies, part of the humoral immune response, are involved in pathogen detection and neutralization.
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Serology is the study of blood serum and other bodily fluids for the identification of antibodies.
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Precipitation reactions are serological assays for the detection of immunoglobulin levels from the serum of a patient with infection.
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Agglutination reactions are used to assess the presence of antibodies in a specimen by mixing it with particulate antigens.
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Neutralization reactions are used to inactivate viruses and evaluate neutralizing antibodies.
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Complement fixation is a method that demonstrates antibody presence in patient serum.
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Fluorescent antibodies are antibodies that have been tagged with a fluorescent compound to facilitate their detection in the laboratory.
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Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) is a solid-phase enzyme immunoassay used to detect the presence of a substance in solution.
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Immunoblot is a technique for analyzing proteins via antigen-antibody specific reactions.
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Methods used to differentiate T cells and B cells include staining cell surface receptors and functional assays like the T lymphocyte cytotoxicity assay.
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In vivo testing using animal models of disease help discover new ways of solving complex health problems.
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The future of diagnostic immunology lies in the production of specific antibody-based assays and the development of improved vaccines.
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Laboratory diagnosis of diseases begins with the collection of a clinical specimen for examination or processing in the laboratory.
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Following collection in appropriate containers, clinical specimens undergo a rapid examination in the laboratory.
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Following direct examination, clinical specimens are cultivated to generate more confirmatory data.
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Genotyping of pathogenic isolates provides valuable support during investigations of suspected outbreaks and when tracing infectious diseases.
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Nucleic acid sequencing and rRNA analysis consist of comparing nitrogen bases in rRNA.
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Type I (or immediate/anaphylactic) hypersensitivity can be caused by the body's response to a foreign substance.
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Allergy testing can help confirm or rule out allergies, reducing adverse reactions and limiting unnecessary avoidance and medications.
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In type II (cytotoxic) hypersensitivity, the antibodies produced by the immune response bind to antigens on the patient's own cell surfaces.
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Type III hypersensitivity occurs when there is little antibody and an excess of antigen, leading to the formation of small immune complexes.
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Type IV hypersensitivity reactions are cell-mediated and take 2 to 3 days to develop.
Immunodeficiency occurs when the immune system cannot appropriately respond to infections.
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Autoimmunity is the failure of an organism in recognizing "self" which results in an immune response against its own cells and tissues.
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Autoimmunity is a result of the failure of an organism's immune system to recognize "self".
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An immune complex is formed from the integral binding of an antibody to a soluble antigen and can function as an epitope.
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Cell-mediated autoimmunity can happen by several mechanisms involving cells of the immune system and their receptors.
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Primary immunodeficiencies are disorders in which part of the body's immune system is missing, or does not function properly.
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Secondary immunodeficiencies refer to acquired immune system disorders.
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Cancer immunotherapy is the use of the body's own immune system to reject cancer.