Immunology 415: Immunology Journal

    Week of October 2 1. Cytokines - hormones produced by lymphocytes that communicate with other immune cells, which help recruit those cells to perform more aggressively to eradicate the pathogen or reject some foreign material i.e bone marrow transplant or a fetus.  http://www.biosciencenotes.com/cytokines/ 2. Heparin - a drug that is considered a blood thinner and prevents blood clots. It is also naturally occurring in the human body. The difference is that when it is injected in higher doses, it is sufficient enough to act as a blood thinner vs when its produced in the body.  http://medchemexpress.net/Heparin.html 3.  Opsonization - the process in which antigens are coated in opsonin (a marker or tag) that allow the immune system to recognize it and marks it for phagocytosis or, in the case of dead cells, for recycling. Nanocarrier-internalization-by-opsonization-and-phagocytosis-a-Unless-specifically.png

     This past Monday I was at my job and I walked in ready to start my shift and my manager on duty asked me lots of questions in regards to Covid-19 such as if I had come into contact with anybody that had it etc etc. They always ask these questions just to be safe of course, but, on Monday, manager pulled out the infrared thermometer. She checked my temperature and a cute little smiley face and green light popped up, indicating I was okay and didn't have a fever. As we learned in class, a fever is a sign that your body is fighting off some type of bacterial or viral infection. Viruses proliferate and replicate more efficiently at our normal temperature (98.6 F), so by increasing body temperature, the virus has a harder time reproducing and damaging the host cells. Fever is a defensive reaction and once a pathogen invades, the immune response reacts with pyrogens, produced by bacterium. Once the substance reaches the hypothalamus via blood flow, the pyrogens inhibit heat sensing

Week 3 (9/18/2020)        Today, I was at home reading my news app on my phone and came across an article in The Washington Post, where Dr. Elinore McCance-Katz, a psychiatrist with a Yale doctorate in infectious disease epidemiology, mentioned that the shutdown of the government and state had more of a disastrous effect since the healthcare system was also shut down with everything else. I agree since this makes people feel as though they can't even leave their home, especially if you fall under the category of being immunocompromised. This dangerous because if someone that is immunosuppressed contracts covid-19, the ultimate result may be death. Katz mentioned those with obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and pulmonary diseases especially, are at a higher risk. As we know from class, those who are immunosupressed have weakened immune responses, affecting its ability to fight off infection and disease.   Also, we learned that when it comes to combating disease, the innate

Immunology Terms:  Week 1 1. Antigen - a substance capable of stimulating an immune response or reaction. i.e. Those who tested positive, displayed the antigen for SARS-CoV-2.  2. Inoculation -a means of preventing disease by introducing the disease causing microorganism or virus into the body in small quantities.  i.e. In ancient history, the inoculation of small pox was eventually what dropped the R0 rate.   3. APC - (antigen presenting cell) a macrophage that has ingested a foreign cell and displays the antigen on its surface.  i.e. The patient displayed symptoms of a common cold but was tested for other diseases just to make sure, upon review of her lab tests, she had high levels of dendritic cells which is the APC of influenza virus.  Week 2 (9/11/20)  1. Hematopoiesis - a process that red blood cells and lymphocytes undergo to allow for continuous renewal of these cells from self-renewing hematopoietic stem cells.  2.  Apoptosis - programmed cell death 3. Autoantibodies - immu