In 1903, Almroth Wright discovered that phagocytosis was reinforced by specific antibodies that he called opsonins, from the Greek " opson ", " a dressing or relish ".
22.
Humoral immunity refers to antibody production and the accessory processes that accompany it, including : Th2 activation and cytokine production, germinal center formation and complement activation, and opsonin promotion of phagocytosis and pathogen elimination.
23.
Since sIgA is a poor opsonin and activator of complement, simply binding a pathogen isn't necessarily enough to contain it specific epitopes may have to be bound to sterically hinder access to the epithelium.
24.
Should the microbe be coated with opsonising antibodies or C3b complement, the co-stimulation of endocytic PRR and opsonin receptor increases the efficacy of the phagocytic process, enhancing the lysosomal elimination of the infective agent.
25.
Cells are phagocytosed as a result of : i ) expressing eat-me signals on their surface, ii ) losing don t-eat-me signals, and / or iii ) binding of opsonins.
26.
Wright further developed his vaccine at a newly opened research department at St Mary's Hospital Medical School in London from 1902, where he established a method for measuring protective substances ( opsonin ) in human blood.
27.
This branch of the complement system is activated by IgA immune complexes and bacterial endotoxins, polysaccharides, and cell walls, and results in producing anaphylatoxins, opsonins, chemotactic factors, and the membrane attack complex, all of which help fight pathogens.
28.
C4 is homologous to C3 in that it contains an internal thioester bond that ends up on C4b and thus it can form covalent amide or ester linkages with the plasma membrane membrane of the pathogen and any associated antibodies, where it then behaves as an opsonin.
29.
The smaller fragment called C3a serves to increase vascular permeability and promote extravasatisation of phagocytes, while the larger C3b fragment can be used as an opsonin or bind to either type of C3 convertase to form the trimolecular C5 convertase to activate C5 for the membrane attack complex.
30.
The so-called resolution of the humoralist and cellularist positions by showing their respective roles in the setting of enhanced killing in the presence of opsonins was popularized by Wright after 1903, although Metchnokoff acknowledged the stimulatory capacity of sentisitized serum of phagotic function in the case of acquired immunity.
