MICROBIOLOGY Study Guide - Adaptive Immune System, Bladder Cancer, Epitope
4 Jan 2022
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Document Summary
The idea that the immune system could mediate cancer cell growth is not new. For many years, it has been understood that chronic inflammation, as occurs with hepatitis b and c infections, drives the development of liver cancer. And for over 35 years, we have known that the immune system can be harnessed to treat superficial bladder cancer. The goal of immunomodulatory cancer therapy is to ensure this kind of robust immune response occurs. The general approach is to design monoclonal antibodies (mabs) that bind to immune cell receptors or other regulatory proteins to either prevent t-cell inhibition function or incite. Although the separation of innate and adaptive functions of immunity is artificial, it allows us to distinguish the pre-programmed, innate responses from the more diverse and long-lasting adaptive responses. In reality the two sides of this coin we call immunity.
