immune memory

Active vs. Passive Immunity

by Gertrud U. Rey During the first few months of life, residual maternal antibodies that crossed the placenta during gestation and antibodies from breast milk protect infants from infection with various microbes. This type of immune protection is known as “passive immunity,” and differs from “active immunity,” which develops in an individual following vaccination or …

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How vaccines work

Vaccines work by educating the host’s immune system to recall the identity of a virus years after the initial encounter, a phenomenon called immune memory. Viral vaccines establish immunity and memory without the pathogenic consequences typical of a natural infection. The success of immunization in stimulating long-lived immune memory is among humanity’s greatest scientific and …

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TWiV 684: Persistence of SARS-CoV-2 immune memory

Daniel Griffin provides a clinical report on COVID-19, and Shane Crotty explains a study of antibodies, B cells and T cells in patients which suggests that immunological memory to SARS-CoV-2 might be long-lived. Click arrow to playDownload TWiV 684 (110 MB .mp3, 184 min)Subscribe (free): iTunes, Google Podcasts, RSS, email Show notes at microbe.tv/twiv

TWiV 677: Does antibody really know what time it is?

Daniel Griffin provides a clinical report on COVID-19, then we discuss rapid deployment of SARS-CoV-2 testing by research laboratories in San Francisco, longitudinal observation of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 in patients, and listener questions on vaccines, loss of smell, face masks, and more. Click arrow to playDownload TWiV 677 (97 MB .mp3, 162 min)Subscribe (free): iTunes, Google Podcasts, RSS, email Become …

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Adaptive immune defenses: Antibodies

With the looming prospect of mass immunization against influenza, it’s important to understand how vaccines work. To do this we must have a good understanding of adaptive immune defenses. Today we’ll begin a discussion of the humoral arm of the adaptive immune response – antibodies. Antibodies are large proteins produced by vertebrates that play important …

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