Vaccine and Immunotherapies Explained
Edition: 1
Copyright: 2023
Pages: 177
Edition: 1
Copyright: 2023
Pages: 176
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The immune system is one of the major organized systems of your body. Your circulatory system distributes and moves your blood, your lungs bring oxygen in and moves CO2 out of your body, and the digestive system collects needed nutrients from food you eat. The cells and molecules of the immune system patrol and travel across your other body systems looking for anything that does not belong. The interactions of these cells and molecules are the basis of this stem's function and a powerful means of fighting off infections. However, the immune system is not perfect and makes mistakes like attacking the wrong target (ie, allergies, autoimmunity). The immune system can be trained and can learn from exposure to the environment and immunotherapies.
This system, like most of biology, has core concepts or 'rules' that cells and molecules uphold. Let's not get confused by the jargon and focus on the core tenets and simple set of 'rules' that the immune system cells use to run a full immunes response. Once you know those 'rules', you will understand how infections are removed from the body, how autoimmunity occurs, what causes allergies, how vaccines work, how transplants are rejected or accepted and how immunotherapies have the potential of being the future of cancer treatments. Vaccines and Immunotherapies Explained will specifically walk you through how an immune system repondes to infections and how immunotherapies work by actively engaging you with questions and thought-provoking stories, links, and images. Enjoy!
1. Pandemics are not new
1.1 Dealing with wave after wave of pandemics
1.2 What is an R number?
1.3 The power of vaccines
2. Pathogens: The importance of knowing about your enemy
2.1 The smallest unit of life
2.2 Pathogens come in many forms
2.3 Size of pathogens matters to the immune cell!
3. Using our inherited natural defenses
3.1 The coevolutionary process between pathogens and their hosts
3.2 Important traits we have inherited from our ancestors: Our innate defenses
3.3 Effective vaccine design relies on our understanding of the innate branch of the immune system
4. The first responders: Our innate cellular military
4.1 Vaccines are a type of immunotherapy
4.2 Communication is the key to success: What are “flu-like” symptoms?
4.3 White Blood Cells on their days off
4.4 Innate WBC responses to small pathogens
4.5 Innate WBC responses to large pathogens
4.6 Innate WBC responses to pathogens that replicate inside cells
5. The power of diversity within the adaptive branch of our immune system
5.1 Pattern-recognizing receptors versus antigen receptors
5.2 Developing the adaptive system: Each cell is as unique as a snow flake
5.3 Initiating adaptive responses: Choosing the right cells out of billions
5.4 Can the number of vaccines overwhelm the adaptive WBCs?
6. Reaching out to management: Adaptive cells are now stepping in during an immune response
6.1 The adaptive branch of the immune system
6.2 Innate WBC soldiers gather entail for the Th cells
6.3 Th cell Generals drive military campaigns
6.4 There are two types of responses: which way will the Th Generals lead the immune System?
6.5 How the body avoids allergies?
6.6 Effective vaccines ensure strong communication from antigen-presenting cells to their Th cell Generals
7. B cells and antibodies
7.1 B cells neutralize the enemy and manage the innate branch’s response
7.2 B cells confirm targets with T helper cells
7.3 B cells are busy during peace time, preparing for the next infection and variants
7.4 B cells work intimately with the innate branch of the immune system
7.5 The power of antibodies in passive immunity
7.6 Passive immunization immunotherapy and use of antibodies in research
8. The power of memory and cancer immunotherapy
8.1 A primary response for any first encounter
8.2 A memory response for any additional encounter
8.3 Killer T cells are key to fighting viruses and cancers
8.4 Immunotherapy: Working with our natural immune system
9. Vaccine strategies (Thiru Vanniasinkam, Ph.D. and Wouter Kalle, Ph.D.)
9.1 Considerations for vaccine design
9.2 Different types of vaccines we are currently using
9.3 Recent approaches to vaccine development
10. Vaccine-induced versus infection-induced herd immunity
10.1 An effective vaccine requires fully equipped immune systems
10.2 Reaching herd immunity through vaccinations or infections?
10.3 Reaching herd immunity without creating pathogen variants
Dr. Justine S. Liepkalns is an Associate Professor at Colorado State University. After receiving her Ph.D. in Immunology and Molecular Pathogenesis at Emory University studying how antibodies remove their targets from the body, she joined the Immunization and Respiratory Diseases branch of the Center for Disease Control and prevention (CDC) agency. There, she studied how preexisting conditions affect immune responses to Flu (Influenza) infections and to Flu vaccines. She also helped decipher how the immune system responds to novel vaccine approaches like those used by certain COVID-19 vaccines.
Since leaving the CDC, she has been teaching immunology and molecular biology to undergraduate students of all levels. She currently is researching how students learn and understand the immune system and vaccines. She loves to work with her students and to play in the kitchen with her husband and two children, often resulting in fresh baked French pastries for game nights with friends.