Introduction to

Immunology
By: Begna T. (Ph.D.)
Asso. Prof. of TRID
Bahir Dar University
College of Medicine and Health Sciences
Email: [email protected]

05/07/2025 1
Outline
• Historical perspectives immunology

• Definition of important terms

• General description of innate and adaptive immunity

• Immunology today

05/07/2025 2
Learning Objectives
• To understand the historical developments of the subject
immunology

• To understand some of the common terminologies of

immunology and immunity

• To understand the current update in immunological sciences

05/07/2025 3
1. Historical perspectives of immunology
• The term “Immunity;” meaning the state of protection from
infectious diseases was derived from the Latin term “Immunis”
meaning “exempt.”

• The earliest written reference about immunity was described by

Thucydides in 430BC during Peloponnesian War.
• He described that only those who had recovered from plague could nurse
the sick because they would not contract the diseases second time.

• The first recorded attempts to induce immunity deliberately were

performed by the Chinese and Turks in the fifteenth century.
05/07/2025 4
1. Historical perspective….cont’
• Chinese (1500A.D): dried crusts derived from smallpox
pustules were either inhaled or inserted into small cuts in
the skin (a technique called variolation).

• In 1718, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (the wife of the

British ambassador to Constantinople) observed the
positive effects of variolation on the native population and
had the technique performed on her own children.

05/07/2025 5
1. Historical perspective….cont’
• Variolation was significantly improved by the English physician
Edward Jenner, in 1798.
• Milkmaids who had contracted the mild disease cowpox were subsequently
immune to smallpox

• Jenner reasoned that introducing fluid from a cowpox pustule into

people (i.e., inoculating them) might protect them from smallpox.

• Louis Pasteur had succeeded in growing the bacterium thought to

cause fowl cholera in culture and then had shown that chickens
injected with the cultured bacterium developed cholera

05/07/2025 6
1. Historical perspective….cont’
• Pasteur hypothesized and proved that aging had weakened the
virulence of the pathogen and that such an attenuated strain
might be administered to protect against the disease.

• He called this attenuated strain a vaccine (from the Latin vacca,

meaning “cow”), in honor of Jenner’s work with cowpox
inoculation.

• Pasteur extended these findings to other diseases,

demonstrating that it was possible to attenuate, or weaken, a
pathogen and administer the attenuated strain as a vaccine.
05/07/2025 7
1. Historical perspective….cont’
• In 1881, Pasteur first vaccinated one group of sheep with heat-
attenuated anthrax bacillus (B. anthracis); he then challenged
the vaccinated sheep and some unvaccinated sheep with a
virulent culture of the bacillus.
• All the vaccinated sheep lived, and all the unvaccinated animals died.
• These experiments marked the beginnings of the discipline of
immunology.

• In 1885, Pasteur administered his first vaccine to a human, a

young boy who had been bitten repeatedly by a rabid dog.
• The boy, Joseph Meister, was inoculated with a series of attenuated
rabies virus preparations.
• And he lived and later became a custodian at the Pasteur Institute.

05/07/2025 8
1. Historical perspective….cont’
• At about 1900:
• Role of phagocytes and cellular immunity were elucidated
• Killed vaccines were introduced
• Complement was described

• In 20th century:
• Acquired immunity resulted from both cellular and humoral elements were
demonstrated.
• Opsonization was described
• The term antigen came in to regular use

05/07/2025 9
1. Historical perspective….cont’

05/07/2025 10
05/07/2025 11
 2. Definition of important terms
• Immunity: is the mechanism to generate an enormous variety of cells
and molecules capable of specifically recognizing and eliminating an
apparently limitless variety of foreign invaders.

• Immune system: A remarkably versatile defense system that has evolved

to protect animals from invading pathogenic microorganisms and cancer.
• It is able to generate an enormous variety of cells and molecules capable of
specifically recognizing and eliminating an apparently limitless variety of foreign
invaders
• Functionally, an immune response can be divided into two related activities—
recognition and response

05/07/2025 12
2. Definition of important terms
• Innate immunity: is an inborn immune response which is always
immediately available to combat a wide range of pathogens but does
not lead to lasting immunity and is not specific for any individual
pathogen.

• Adaptive immunity: is developed during the lifetime of an individual

as an adaptation to infection with that pathogen.
• In many cases, an adaptive immune response also results in the phenomenon
known as immunological memory, which confers lifelong protective immunity
to reinfection with the same pathogen

05/07/2025 13
 2. Definition….. Cont’
• Cell-Mediated (cellular) Immunity: Immunity in which the participations
of lymphocytes and macrophages is predominant .
• Humeral Immunity: Immunity mediated by an antibody and complement
system
• Immunology: the branch of biology that covers the studies of immune
systems in all organisms.
• Immunology has applications in numerous disciplines of medicine, particularly in
the fields of organ transplantation, oncology, rheumatology, virology, bacteriology,
parasitology, psychiatry, and dermatology.
• Cancer immunology: the study of the interaction of the immune system
with cancer cells can lead to diagnostic tests and therapies with which to
find and fight cancer
05/07/2025 14
 2. Definition….. Cont’
• Classical immunology: studies the relationship between the body
systems, pathogens, and immunity.

• Clinical immunology: the study of diseases caused by disorders of the

immune system (failure, aberrant action, and malignant growth of the
cellular elements of the system)
• a form of clinical research requiring the presence of the patient or materials
freshly derived from the patient.
• Reproductive immunology: area of the immunology devoted to the study
of immunological aspects of the reproductive process including fetus
acceptance.
• The term has also been used by fertility clinics to address fertility problems,
recurrent miscarriages, premature deliveries and dangerous complications such as
pre-eclampsia.
05/07/2025 15
2. Definition….. Cont’
• Developmental immunology: studies the relationship between body’s
capability to react to antigens and the developmental stages of the
host and other characters of the antigens like antigen type, maternal
factors and the area where the antigen is presented

• Ecoimmunology and behavioural immunity: explores the relationship

between the immune system of an organism and its social, biotic and
abiotic environment.

• Diagnostic immunology: the specificity of the bond between antibody

and antigen has made the antibody an excellent tool for the detection
of substances by a variety of diagnostic techniques

05/07/2025 16
2. Definition ….cont’
• Theoretical immunology: Immunology is strongly experimental in
everyday practice but is also characterized by an ongoing theoretical
attitude
• battle between "cellular" and "humoral" theories of immunity
• the clonal selection theory (CST) of immunity
• "autopoietic" views, "cognitive immune" views, the "danger model" (or "danger
theory"), and the "discontinuity" theory.

• Autoimmunity: in which the immune system attacks its own host's

body (examples include systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid
arthritis, Hashimoto's disease and myasthenia gravis).

05/07/2025 17
 2. Definition ….cont’
• Antibody (Ab): Protein produced as the result of interaction with an
antigen and has ability to combine with the Ag that stimulated its
production
• Antigen (Ag): a substance that react with an Ab. Not all Ags can induce
an Ab; those that can are called Immunogens
• B cell (B lymphocyte): The precursors of plasma cells that produce Ab
and memory cells.
• Chemokines: Low molecular weight proteins that stimulate leukocyte
movement
• Chemotaxis: A process whereby phagocytic cells are attracted to the
vicinity of invading pathogens.

05/07/2025 18
2. Definition ….cont’
• Cytokines: Intracellular chemical messenger of immune system.

• Compliment: A set of plasma proteins that is the primary mediators

of Ag-Ab reaction.

• Cytolysis: The lysis of bacteria or of cells such as tumor or red blood

cells by the insertion of membrane attack complex (MAC).

• Cytotoxic T cells: T cells that can kill other cells. e.g. cells infected
with intracellular pathogens
• Endotoxins: Bacterial toxins that released from damaged cells .

05/07/2025 19
2. Definition ….cont’
• Epitop: Site on an antigen recognized by an antibody or it is an
antigenic determinant
• Para top: The site on an antibody that recognized by an antigen
• Hapten: A molecule that is not immunogenic by itself but can react
with a specific Antibody.
• Immunoglobulin (Ig): A glycoprotein composed of heavy (H) and light
(L ) chins that functions as an antibody.
• Inflammation: Local accumulation of fluid and cells after injury or
infection
• Majorhistocompatablity complex (MHC): A cluster of genes located in
close proximity which participates in the development of both
humoral and cell mediated immune responses
05/07/2025 20
 2. Definition ….cont’
• Opsonin: A substance capable of enhancing phagocytosis and the
process is called opsonization
• Memory: A second feature of the specific immune response is that it
demonstrates memory
• The immune system "remembers" if it has seen an antigen before and it reacts
to secondary exposures to an antigen in a manner different than after a primary
exposure
• Generally only an exposure to the same antigen will illicit this memory response
• Immunotherapy: the use of immune system components to treat a
disease or disorder
• Immunodeficiency: in which parts of the immune system fail to provide
an adequate response (examples include chronic granulomatous
disease and primary immune diseases)
05/07/2025 21
 2. Definition ….cont’
• Self/non-self discrimination: One characteristic feature of the specific
immune system is that it normally distinguishes between self and non-
self and only reacts against non-self
• Specificity: A third characteristic feature of the specific immune system
is that there is a high degree of specificity in its reactions
• A response to a particular antigen is specific for that antigen or a few closely
related antigens
• Vaccination: is a process of inducing immunity artificially by inoculating
a preparation containing weakened or dead microbes of the kind that
cause a disease, administered to stimulate the immune system to
produce antibodies against that disease

05/07/2025 22
 3. General description of innate and
adaptive immunity
• Immunity—the state of protection from infectious disease—has both a
less specific and more specific component.
• Innate immunity, provides the first line of defense against infection.
• Most components of innate immunity are present before the onset of infection
and constitute a set of disease-resistance mechanisms that are not specific to a
particular pathogen

• Include cellular and molecular components that recognize classes of molecules

peculiar to frequently encountered pathogens.

• Phagocytic cells, such as macrophages and neutrophils, barriers such as skin,

and a variety of antimicrobial compounds synthesized by the host all play
important roles in innate immunity.

05/07/2025 23
3. General description…….cont’
• Adaptive immunity, does not come into play until there is an antigenic
challenge to the organism.
• Responds to the challenge with a high degree of specificity as well as the
remarkable property of “memory.”

• Typically, there is an adaptive immune response against an antigen within five or

six days after the initial exposure to that antigen.

• Exposure to the same antigen some time in the future results in a memory
response

• The immune response to the second challenge occurs more quickly than the first,
is stronger, and is often more effective in neutralizing and clearing the pathogen.

05/07/2025 24
3. General description……cont’
• The major agents of adaptive immunity are lymphocytes and the
antibodies and other molecules they produce.

• Because adaptive immune responses require some time to marshal,

innate immunity provides the first line of defense during the critical
period just after the host’s exposure to a pathogen.

• In general, most of the microorganisms encountered by a healthy

individual are readily cleared within a few days by defense mechanisms
of the innate immune system before they activate the adaptive immune
system.

05/07/2025 25
05/07/2025 26
 Overview of the Immune System

05/07/2025 27
 Thank you!

05/07/2025 28