Viral infections and other illness are caused by some antigens that enter our body. When an antigen enters our body, antibodies response to prevent many viral infections. There are different types of antibody responses on virus; among those, I will be discussing about t neutralization and activation of the complement system.
Neutralization refers to a procedure in which the chemical or biological activity of a reagent or a living organism is inhibited, usually by a specific neutralizing antibody. It is when viral infections are being prevented by specific antibodies that react to antigens that enter our body.
Activation of the Complement System is a series of 20 plasma proteins, circulating in the blood and tissue fluids. These proteins are released in the liver, and are widely spread in the blood and tissue fluids. However, the complement system comes into effect only when activated. Then how does it activated? It is activated by three ways known as classical pathway, alternative pathway, lectin pathway, and last lytic pathway. The process and its products of these pathways are shown and discussed in the diagrams below.
Through these pathways of complement system, different products are produced and produces different immune effects. First is opsonization, which eliminates pathogen by the phagocytes, second is cell lysis, which destroy large amount of bacteria by rupturing its cell wall, third is chemotaxis, which is the migration of neutrophils and macrophages to the area where antigen is present, and last is activation of mast cells.
How does activating the complement system apply in real-life situation?
During incompatible blood transfusion, the donor blood will be recognized as foreign when the antibodies of the body’s immune system come into contact with the antigens on the foreign blood cells. This forms an antigen-antibody complex through the process of agglutination. This activates the complement responses that produce attachment of its proteins to the foreign blood cell membrane forming the Mac attack, which eventually will cause cell lysis or death of the cell.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutralisation_(immunology)
https://www.accessscience.com/content/neutralization-reaction-immunology/450500
https://www.immunology.org/public-information/bitesized-immunology/systems-and-processes/complement-system
Image sources:
https://immunologynotes.com/neutralization-test-introduction-and-types/
https://www.immunology.org/sites/default/files/Complement-System-Figure-1.png
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K3aNh3edew
Comments