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Non-specific immunity, or innate immunity, is the immune system with which you were born, made up of phagocytes and barriers. Phagocytosis , derived from the Greek words phagein , meaning to eat, kytos or cell, and “osis” meaning process, was first described by Élie Metchnikoff , who won the Nobel Prize 100 years ago.
The innate immune system or nonspecific immune system [1] is one of the two main immunity strategies in vertebrates (the other being the adaptive immune system). The innate immune system is an alternate defense strategy and is the dominant immune system response found in plants , fungi , prokaryotes , and invertebrates (see Beyond vertebrates ).
In all vertebrates, there are two different kinds of immunities: Innate and Adaptive immunity. Innate immunity is used to fight off non-changing antigens and is therefore considered nonspecific. It is usually a more immediate response than the adaptive immune system, usually responding within minutes to hours. [2]
Scheme of the complement system. The complement system, also known as complement cascade, is a part of the humoral, innate immune system and enhances (complements) the ability of antibodies and phagocytic cells to clear microbes and damaged cells from an organism, promote inflammation, and attack the pathogen's cell membrane. [1]
The immune system may respond in multiple ways to an antigen; a key feature of this response is the production of antibodies by B cells (or B lymphocytes) involving an arm of the immune system known as humoral immunity. The antibodies are soluble and do not require direct cell-to-cell contact between the pathogen and the B-cell to function.
The immune system's response to a few diseases, such as dengue, counterproductively worsens the next infection (antibody-dependent enhancement). [ 7 ] As of 2019, researchers are still trying to find out why some vaccines produce life-long immunity, while the effectiveness of other vaccines drops to zero in less than 30 years (for mumps) or ...
One very important collectin is mannan-binding lectin (MBL), a major PRR of the innate immune system that binds to a wide range of bacteria, viruses, fungi and protozoa. MBL predominantly recognizes certain sugar groups on the surface of microorganisms but also binds phospholipids , nucleic acids and non- glycosylated proteins. [ 37 ]
He further formalised the theory in his 1959 book The Clonal Selection Theory of Acquired Immunity. He explained immunological memory as the cloning of two types of lymphocyte. One clone acts immediately to combat infection whilst the other is longer lasting, remaining in the immune system for a long time and causing immunity to that antigen.