A primer on immune responses and mechanisms

Abstract

The immune response is how your body recognizes and defends itself against bacteria, viruses, and substances that appear foreign and harmful. Innate, or nonspecific, immunity is the defense system with which you were born. It protects you against all antigens. Innate immunity involves barriers that keep harmful materials from entering your body. An antigen-presenting cell (APC) is a cell that displays antigen bound by major histocompatibility complex (MHC) proteins on its surface; this process is known as antigen presentation. T cells may recognize these complexes using their T cell receptors (TCRs). APCs process antigens and present them to T-cells. They are found in a variety of tissue types. Professional antigen-presenting cells, including macrophages, B cells and dendritic cells, present foreign antigens to helper T cells, while virus-infected cells (or cancer cells) can present antigens originating inside the cell to cytotoxic T cells There are two broad classes of immune responses—antibody responses and cell-mediated immune responses, and they are carried out by different classes of lymphocytes, called B cells and T cells, respectively. The way the body defends itself against substances it sees as harmful or foreign. In an immune response, the immune system recognizes the antigens (usually proteins) on the surface of substances or microorganisms, such as bacteria or viruses, and attacks and destroys, or tries to destroy, them.