• Question: Why do the immune system are able to know when are they pathogens?

    Asked by George to Carmen, Laura, Steph on 19 Mar 2015.
    • Photo: Stephanie Dyson

      Stephanie Dyson answered on 19 Mar 2015:

      Immune cells have things on their surface called pattern recognition receptors and all pathogens have pathogen-associated molecular patterns on their surface. The receptors on the immune cells recognise the patterns on the pathogens and that is how they identify them as being dangerous.

      Steph

    • Photo: Laura Garcia Ibanez

      Laura Garcia Ibanez answered on 19 Mar 2015:

      Yes, basically immune cells are able to recognise which cells belong to the body and which ones don’t because they present specific signatures in their surface. It is like a barcode, each cell has its own and immune cells are able to read this barcode and decide if they are good or bad. Cheers George!

    • Photo: Carmen Denman

      Carmen Denman answered on 19 Mar 2015:

      Hi George,
      Great question, nothing else to add except it is alllll about the antibodies! Our immune cells grip a bit of the pathogen say a petide important for T cell recognition, then present that bit of peptide to immune cells to enable them to produce antibodies. Antibodies are essential for immunity. They are often even the main component for treatments of some diseases, such as one of the Ebola vaccine treatments in trial now, Mzapp.
      Cheers!
      Carmen

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