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Antigens Involved in Adaptive Immunity

Antigens Involved in Adaptive Immunity

An antigen is any substance the immune system identifies as foreign and potentially harmful to the body, prompting an immune response. Antigens have two functional properties: immunogenicity and reactivity. Immunogenicity is the ability of an antigen to stimulate a specific immune response. At the same time, reactivity describes the antigen's ability to react with the cells and antibodies produced in response to it.
Complete Antigens
Complete antigens possess both immunogenicity and reactivity.

Cells of the Adaptive Immune Response

Cells of the Adaptive Immune Response

The T and B lymphocytes of the adaptive immune system develop from common lymphoid progenitor cells in the bone marrow. These progenitors give rise to precursors that eventually develop into both T and B lymphocytes. As these precursors mature, they gain the ability to detect and respond to foreign antigens in the body, a process known as immunocompetence. Additionally, these precursors acquire self-tolerance, a process that ensures they do not react to self-antigens. This intricate system...

Amyloid Fibrils

Amyloid Fibrils

Amyloid fibrils are aggregates of misfolded proteins. Under most circumstances, misfolded proteins are either refolded by chaperone proteins or degraded by the proteasome. However, in the case of a mutation or a disease, these proteins can accumulate to form large clusters and often further assemble to form elongated fibers, called fibrils.
Amyloid deposits were observed as early as 1639 in the liver and the spleen. In 1854, Rudolph Virchow performed iodine staining, normally used to...

Immune Response Against Viral Pathogens

Immune Response Against Viral Pathogens

The immune system's response to viral infections is a complex and coordinated process involving natural killer (NK) cells, T cell-mediated responses, and antibody-mediated responses.
NK Cells
NK cells are a crucial part of our innate immune system, acting as the first line of defense against viral infections. These cells can recognize and kill infected cells without prior exposure to the virus, effectively slowing down the spread of infection. Additionally, NK cells produce proinflammatory...

Cell-mediated Immune Responses

Cell-mediated Immune Responses

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Assessing the Cellular Immune Response of the Fruit Fly, Drosophila melanogaster, Using an In Vivo Phagocytosis Assay

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Functional amyloids in insect immune response.

Patrizia Falabella¹, Lea Riviello, Mariarosa Pascale

¹Difesa e Biotecnologie Agro-Forestali, Dipartimento di Biologia, Università della Basilicata, Via dell'Ateneo Lucano 10, 85100 Potenza, Italy.

Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

|December 31, 2011

Summary

Insect immune cells produce amyloid fibrils that form a scaffold, enhancing defense against invaders by promoting melanin deposition and immune cell adhesion during encapsulation. This reveals a novel role for protein aggregates in innate immunity.

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Published on: January 12, 2017

Area of Science:

Immunology
Biochemistry
Entomology

Background:

Insects possess innate immunity involving humoral and cellular responses against pathogens and parasites.
Immune defense mechanisms include encapsulation by immune cells and localized melanin deposition to prevent systemic damage.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the role of a specific protein produced by Heliothis virescens haemocytes in the insect immune response.
To elucidate the function of amyloid fibrils generated by insect immune cells.

Main Methods:

Analysis of protein production by haemocytes of Heliothis virescens larvae.
Investigation of amyloid fibril formation and accumulation in the endoplasmic reticulum.
Observation of amyloid layer formation upon immune challenge and its effect on non-self objects.

Main Results:

A protein from the XendoU family produced by Heliothis virescens haemocytes forms amyloid fibrils.
These amyloid fibrils accumulate in the rough endoplasmic reticulum and are released upon immune challenge.
The amyloid layer acts as a scaffold, promoting localized melanin synthesis and immune cell adhesion for encapsulation.

Conclusions:

Insect immune systems utilize inducible amyloidogenesis as a defense mechanism.
Amyloid fibrils serve as a molecular scaffold in the insect encapsulation response.
Insects provide a model system for studying amyloidogenesis and its potential prevention, offering insights relevant to human diseases.