Antimicrobial Enzymes and Binding Proteins

antimicrobial enzymes
A few of the best known humoral effectors of innate immunity are listed in Table 1 bellow, along with the types of target molecules they recognize. Some are enzymes that can directly injure or kill microbial pathogens. An example is lysozyme, an endoglycosidase found in human saliva, mucus, tears, and other secretions, which attacks the protective cell wall encasing every bacterial cell. Lysozyme acts by digesting the peptidoglycan meshwork formed by long carbohydrate chains of alternating N-acetylmuramic acid and N-acetylglucosamine residues, crosslinked covalently by short oligopeptide sidechains which is a major constituent of all bacterial cell walls but is not found in mammalian tissues. (more…)

Antibodies and the Immune Response - Human Immune System

antibodies immune response

B cells

The main function of B cells is to produce antibodies. Antibodies are complex molecules produced by the immune system in response to antigens. As mentioned previously, antigens are foreign proteins or glycoproteins (a sugar linked to a protein) that trigger the immune response. Every living cell produces several different proteins, each unique to its own cell type and species. The antibody produced against the antigen is entirely specific to that antigen. (more…)

Oral Tolerance and Antigenic Proteins Founds in Food

gut-associated-lymphoid-tissueHuman body treated all of the food that we ate, either plants or animals, as foreign substances. It is body immune system’s function to protect us from foreign material’s intrusion which may causes harmful to us. Then why does our immune system not oppose and refuse foreign materials that we consume as food?”

Naturally, if our body totally reject those foods which get into our body, we could not survive! Then, what is it that allows for food to plainly evade the roadblock of immune cells and be taken up into our bodies? In the final process, food become an integral part of our tissues and organs, and then be used as fuel for essential body processes. Research has begun to reveal part of the answer to this important issue in our body complex immune system question: the complex series of events known as oral tolerance. (more…)