Essay On Natural Immunity Against Malaria

“Humoral immunity is a type of immune response that depends on antibodies.” The response begins when a pathogen binds to a B cell. The B cell will engulf the pathogen and display a part of the antigen on its exterior. Once a T cell is exposed to the antigen-presenting B cell, the T cell will release proteins to activate the B cell. Now that the B cell is activated, it will produce antibodies to cause the pathogens to clump together. In the last stage of humoral immunity, phagocytes will engulf and destroy the pathogens.

Mosquitoes pass malaria to humans through their salivary glands. Once the parasites have entered the blood stream, they go to the liver. In the liver they mature and undergo reproduction, forming merozoites. These merozoites enter the blood stream and inject themselves into red blood cells. Once inside the blood cells, they reproduce rapidly and within forty-eight to seventy-two hours, the blood cell bursts, releasing hemoglobin into the blood stream. It is the destruction of these blood cells and the hemoglobin released into the blood stream that actually causes most of the symptoms.

Secondly, several in today’s society believe that natural immunity is more beneficial than artificial immunity. This is because although artificial immunity is strong, the effects caused by natural immunity are much greater hence longer lasting.5 One way of natural immunity is natural passive immunity. Through this, offspring receives antibodies to help fight infections during the beginning of its life either through the placenta while in the uterus or breastmilk from the mother. Natural active immunity is said to produce higher antibody levels against ailments as

The plasmodium parasite would be most susceptible to human antibodies between the moment of initial infection and the arrival of the larvae in the liver, as it travels through the bloodstream in the form of sporozytes. Here the parasite is fully exposed, not ensconced in liver cells or red blood cells as during later phases of its development. Though the lower numbers of parasites at this stage would trigger less of an antibody response, this lower plasmodium population would also be more effectively countered by the human body's natural defenses.

Because L. pneumophila is foreign to the body, it induces an immune response, leading to the production of antibodies. Antibody production is apart of the adaptive immunity, also referred to as specific immunity. Dendritic cells are messengers between both the adaptive and innate immune responses. These cells are antigen-presenting cells. Dendritic cells function by processing antigen material and presenting it on the cell surface to T cells. T cells are associated with cell-mediated immunity. They attack abnormal cells as well as cells that is infected by a pathogen. There are four major categories of T cells, and they include cytotoxic T cells, memory T cells, helper T cells, and suppressor T cells. Cytotoxic T cells immediately attack infected

Previous experiments have analyzed the bridge between basic immunity and infectious disease. The infectious disease of our interest is that transmitted by ehrlichia, which has the ability to cause a bacterial infection within an organism. These tick-borne pathogens generate an immune response within the infected organism. While it is the short-term immunity process that allows for the organism to defend itself against the pathogen, it is long-term production of immune system cells that protect the organism against potential future encounters. IgM-mediated immunity is developed over the course of an infection and previous work shows that it remains in the system to help fight off future infections.

Within science, I find immunology fascinating because of its potential to either benefit or harm living organism. Immunology consists more than just viruses and bacterium. It is the focus of many scientist's research. Due to the possibilities of understanding immunology, I would like to further my study and passion for science to possibly make a contribution to the field of immunology. A course like “Biology of Malaria, Lyme, and Other Vector-Borne Diseases” will expand my knowledge in immunology and prove to be a beneficial experience. I am excited to learn about pathogen transmission, cellular immune responses, and the development of vaccines. Infectious diseases are one of the prominent factors to global deaths, and to gain knowledge on how they are transmitted and treated is

A child is playing at school and is in contact with another child who has the measles. The child contracts the disease, its body works to create antibodies to the disease, and then that child is now “immune” to that specific pathogen. The body will have an anamnestic response (rapid reappearance of that antibody) if that person is again subjected to that specific disease.

In addition to these cytokine responses, the immune system also implements reactive T cells to help fight off parasites (Aandahl et al., 2004). These T cells can be immunopathic, but they also possess the ability to regulate both cytokine responses and other T cell responses (Aandahl et al., 2004). These regulatory T cells may have evolved as part of the immune system’s response to immunopathology. Over time evolution favored T cells that regulate the cytokine response, which helps avoid septic shock, increasing the fitness of the host’s immune system.

2. Antibodies are Y shaped gamma globulin proteins found in the blood or lymph tissue. They are made by B cells as an immune defense against foreign antigens. Each antibody binds to a specific antigen. A Genome is a set of DNA. An Antigen is a foreign molecule which triggers the production of antibodies by the immune system. Every human has an Adaptive Immune System and an Innate Immune system.

Due to the absence of self-antigen presentation in the thymus [36], or the low affinity of T cells

The following is a brief description of the infection cycle. A person is bitten by an infected mosquito. The young parasite takes up residence in a lymph node or lymphatic vessel, then it matures into an adult producing microfilariae (larvae) that circulate in the blood. This damages the lymph node, eventually making it nonfunctional. The body’s lymphatic system is designed to fight infection, so the lymph nodes become inflamed and fevers result as the body struggles in vain to overcome this pathogen. In addition, lymphatic fluid

As you calmly inch forward with a finger on the spray head, approaching steadily yet cautiously to avoid startling the organism who is miniscule compared to ourselves, one fails to take into account the broad consequences that their actions may have. This was a similar idea in the 1950s when cases of malaria arose and the most economical and effective means of control was essentially spraying at the touch of a button. Insecticides are a rapid way of killing mosquitoes that carried diseases. It was the clear solution to the problem; however mosquitoes evolved resistance to the insecticides. Since then, researchers and organizations have developed strategies to tackle the issue of insecticide resistance especially in the case of malaria. There have been tactics that have developed to hinder or prevent evolutionary resistance with the help of underlying evolutionary principles.

Whilst this is occurring, memory B cells figure out the shape of the antigen and remember it. This allows the B cells to produce antibodies much faster if the pathogen reinfects the person. The problem with the human immune system is that it takes approximately three weeks to reach peak antibody concentration and remove all of the pathogens in the body. Many pathogenic diseases (tetanus, polio, meningococcal etc) will kill the individual before the 3rd line of defence has the chance to destroy them. Vaccination involves injecting antigens (in the form of attenuated pathogens or pathogen parts) into the body. This causes the same immune response that would occur if the individual was infected with the actual disease; however, because the pathogens have been weakened (or killed) and had their reproductive ability inhibited, they cannot kill. This means that If the individual is infected by the pathogen in the future, he/she is extremely unlikely to get the disease (RNA based viruses such as Influenza are exempt from this due to their antigenic shift/drift ability). The use of repeated vaccination (eg. vaccination for a particular disease at two, four and six years of age) enhances the immune system even more.

Malaria is one of the ten most common, yet deadly diseases in the world. It is a parasitic disease spread by the bite of Anopheles mosquito, which is active between dusk and dawn. Malaria occurs in over 100 countries and territories.