Reddit reviews Janeway's Immunobiology (Immunobiology: The Immune System (Janeway))

There's a LOT of uninformed bullshit floating around here, so let's go over how vaccines actually work. I'll break it down for you real easy like.

1. The purpose of the immune system is to separate harmful non-self stuff from non-harmful self stuff, and then destroy the harmful stuff.
   
   
2. There are 2 separate immune systems: innate and adaptive. The innate immune system has a set repertoire of things it can respond against, but it does a damn good job of it. The adaptive immune system learns and remembers.
   
   
3. We're going to use tetanus as an example. It's a shitty example because it is incredibly lethal, but it will do.
   
   
4. You sat on a rusty nail. It made you bleed. Clostridium tetani bacteria are now in your blood stream.
   
   
5. Luckily for you, the innate immune system can see the LPS and other molecules on the tetanus bacteria and instantly moves to destroy it.
   
   
6. But it doesn't get all of it. The tetanus bacteria, at home in your body, begin to quickly replicate. If your body doesn't do something about it fast, you're fucked. Lockjaw, death from paralysis, dehydration, and neural degeneration, but not before incredibly painful seizures. Have fun with that.
   
   
7. The adaptive immune system takes at least 5 days to get humming. Some specialized cells, dendritic cells, have been acting as messengers to get C. tetani antigens directly to the cells of the adaptive immune system, and they, in turn, are just now getting their shit together. These are your T and B cells, and together they will pump out a brew of chemicals that will light up the C. tetani bacteria like something really fucking bright and easy to see.
   
   
8. Now that the C. tetani bacteria are lit up blazing bright, the destroyer cells of the innate immune system (macrophages, neutrophils, and some others) converge upon them like really really hungry bears seeing fat lambs in a corner. They destroy the pathogens efficiently and rapidly and begin to clear the infection.
   
   
9. Against all odds, the T and B cells manage to secrete enough antibodies (coats the pathogen brightly) and cytokines (coordinate, amplify, and [eventually] end the response of the destroyer cells and their supporting cell types) that in turn direct the destroyer cells to kill of all the C. tetani. You are a lucky bastard. Now most of the T and B cells that fought off that infection will die off (they'd cause issues if they stuck around), but some will remain alive to form an immunological memory.
   
   
10. If your immune system ever "sees" C. tetani again, those immunological memory cells will instantly drop into ass-kicking mode and circumvent that whole 5 day waiting period thing to fight off the infection faster and more awesomely than you would ever have hoped, most usually to the point where you don't even notice it going on.
    
    Now, if you have survived a C. tetani infection and been naturally immunized, you are a very lucky son of a bitch and should really, at this point, devote your life to the curating of highly improbable shit because you're now eminently qualified.
    
    Vaccines replicate step 7 as laid out above, but without the risk of death (whooping cough), disfigurement (polio), or disabillity (mumps). They do this by presenting bits of dead pathogens to your immune system along with a chemical, known as an adjuvant, to tell your immune system that this is something to react against. So the adaptive immune system spins up, without any actual pathogen threat, against that specific pathogen and then winds down to form an immunological memory that will kick the ass of that pathogen if it ever tries to come in.
    
    Vaccines aren't something to fuck around with. The fact that we're even asking the question of whether or not they should be mandatory is indicative of a massive First World Problem. No one can remember how terrible polio, mumps, whooping cough, scarlet fever, etc. were, so we see denying vaccination as no big deal. Meanwhile, those same diseases are still endemic, and still killing millions of people every year, in developing nations while we sit inside our chicken nugget lard boat and bitch about trivialities. Vaccinate your shit already, folks.
    
    Motherfucking source. Go read this shit and get educated; the immune system is a mind-bogglingly complex thing that involves every facet of biological study, although I was most fascinated with the mathematical modeling thereof when I still did research.

Previous semester immunology, but if you're interested, you can check out Janeway's Immunobiology

Or, you know, do a google search.

This was in the 3rd result:

>Congenital Immunodeficiency: These disorders are caused by a genetic abnormality, which is often X-linked (see Genetics: X-Linked Inheritance). That is, only boys are affected. As a result, about 60% of people with congenital immunodeficiency disorders are male.

http://www.merckmanuals.com/home/immune_disorders/immunodeficiency_disorders/overview_of_immunodeficiency_disorders.html

>I was making the case which you can read in the studies above that OspA in desseminated infection can induce immunosupression through indirect mechanisms.

Which as I pointed out a very long time ago is pretty meaningless since OspA is expressed in the tick stage.

>Question, can not TLR2 agonists supress immune system?

No.

>Can not OspA interfere with the response of lymphocytes to proliferative stimuli including a blocking of cell cycle phase progression?

According to a single paper that was never cited and only used purified lymphocytes, maybe. But the immune system works together. Without T cells and macrophages together that's not very useful information.

>Yeah, I'm interested! What books do you recommend?

Janeway's [Immunobiology] (https://www.amazon.com/Janeways-Immunobiology-Immune-System-Janeway/dp/0815342438/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1505745700&sr=8-1&keywords=immunobiology+janeway+8th+edition) has been the gold standard for years. David White's [The Physiology and Biochemistry of Prokaryotes ] (https://www.amazon.com/Physiology-Biochemistry-Prokaryotes-David-White/dp/019539304X) and [Molecular Genetics of Bacteria] (https://www.amazon.com/Molecular-Genetics-Bacteria-Larry-Snyder/dp/1555816274/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1505745797&sr=1-1&keywords=molecular+genetics+of+bacteria) are the best microbiology references. For something more specific, ASM Press periodically puts out books on specific groups of bacteria.

I'd echo the comment by /u/adenocard above about not pursuing it too far, but if you are interested in learning it in a bit more detail, I recommend the 14-lecture series on YouTube by the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Part 1 is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jshw2sHrk8Y

Additionally, Janeway's Immunobiology is an excellent text for readability, even though it will go into detail that you will never need to know again. I generally use it as a reference when I'm curious about a particular point. Here's the Amazon listing: http://www.amazon.com/Janeways-Immunobiology-Kenneth-Murphy/dp/0815342438/ref=tmm_pap_title_0

The publisher is one of "those kind" that publish a new version every year. This seems to the most recent one, but the changes are so minor you'll probably do fine with the cheaper, previous edition instead.

EDIT: I linked to Amazon because I don't know any other international well-known book supplier. The prices on Amazon for that book are BRUTAL though. I got it for 50 euro myself elsewhere.