Course Outline Faculty of Science  

Department of Biological Sciences   

BIOL 320-3 Immunology

Fall 2007

Course Description:

An overview of the structure and function of the immune system at the cellular and molecular level. Topics include: cells of the immune system and their interactions; immunoglobulin structure, function and genetics; T-cells and cell-mediated immunity; major histocompatibility complex; regulation of the immune response; inappropriate immune responses (hypersensitivity and autoimmunity) and immunodeficiency syndromes.

Instructor: Dr. Mairi MacKay Phone/Voice Mail: 828-5463 Office: S328 E-Mail: mackay@tru.ca Office Hours: M,F 2:30-3:30 pm; W,F 10:30-11:30 am (or make an appointment)

Prerequisites: BIOL 213 (with a grade of C- or better); BIOL 210/220 recommended.

Lectures: MWF 11:30 am- 12:20 pm, OM2402;

Seminars: S01 T 11:30 am- 12:20 pm, S172 S02 T 12:30- 1:20 pm, S172 S03 T 1:30- 2:20 pm, S375 Seminar time will be used for demonstrations, games and other supplementary material, student presentations and review.

Educational Objectives/Learning Outcomes:

The main objective of the course is to help you to learn about the human immune system works... vocabulary, characteristics of the major cells and tissues of the immune system, an appreciation for how the different parts of the immune system work together to fight infection, and how a hypersensitive or malfunctioning immune system can injure the body... so that you can read and understand articles and books about immunology, conduct a knowledgeable conversation with your doctor or other biologists, and amaze your friends and family with your store of useful information. More general objectives include

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learning to read and interpret scientific research articles and communicating your findings in an oral presentation.

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Required Texts/Materials:

Kuby Immunology (6th ed.) by Kindt, Goldsby and Osborne (Freeman) (Copies of the 6th edition are on reserve in the library…the 5th ed is kind of out of date now).

Course notes and supplementary material are also provided on WebCT.

Evaluation: Midterm Exam: 20% Wed. Oct. 17 (tentative)

Quizzes/Assignments: 20% (best 4 of 5; worth 5% each) dates TBA

Group Presentation in seminar: 10% (see below)

Written Assignment: 10% (see below)

Final Exam: 40% (Fall exam period Dec. 4-16)

Tentative Outline of Lecture Topics: (Chapter references- 6th ed.)

Innate and Adaptive Immunity: an overview (Chapter 1) Cells and tissues of the immune system: (Ch. 2, 3 & 13) Humoral Immunity: Antibodies and antigens (Ch. 4) Antibody genetics (Ch. 5) B-cell ontogeny and activation (Ch. 11) Techniques using antibodies (Ch. 6) Complement (Ch. 7) Cellular Immunity: T-cells and T cell receptors (Ch. 9 & 10) MHC, antigen processing and presentation (Ch. 7& 17) Cell-Mediated Effector Responses (Ch. 14) Cytokines (Ch. 12) Hypersensitivity (Ch. 15) Tolerance (Ch. 16) and Immunodeficiency (Ch. 20)

For further information on these and other topics, check out the text Web site: http://bcs.whfreeman.com/immunology6e/

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Group presentation in seminars (10% graded as a group)

Groups of 2 or 3 students will be responsible for giving a 50 minute presentation on one of the following topics in during seminars on the assigned dates. Please use the appropriate chapters in the text as the basis for your presentation and supplement with up-to-date information using other resources such as research articles, scientific reviews (see “Current Opinion in Immunology,” “Trends in Immunology” and “Annual Review of Immunology” in our library) and material from the Internet (but be cautious about using reliable sources!)

Group 1: Vaccines (Ch. 19) Tues. Oct. 30

Group 2: Transplantation immunology (Ch. 17) Tues. Nov. 6

Group 3: Autoimmunity (Ch. 16) Tues. Nov. 13

Group 4: Cancer and the immune system (Ch. 21) Tues. Nov. 20

Written Assignment: (10%)

Each individual will be responsible for providing a written report on the group’s topic. This will be due Tues. Nov. 20 by 4 pm. (Late reports lose one mark of 10 per day). As part of your report, I would like you to find and summarize at least two recent (since 2000) “primary research papers” dealing with some aspect of the group’s topic- for example if you are in the vaccine group, you could find 2 papers dealing with DNA vaccines. Each individual should choose different articles. “Primary research papers” present the methods and results of actual experiments or clinical studies and are published in scientific journals such as Science, Nature, Immunology, New England Journal of Medicine, Nature Medicine, etc. “Review articles” summarize the work of others…these are not the papers I want you to write about. I would like to check the articles you have chosen before you begin your summaries. Please do this by Nov. 2! Group Presentation Guidelines (topics to cover):

Vaccines (Ch. 19):

Passive vs Active Immunization Forms of passive immunization- natural and injected

(see Ch. 4 Clinical Focus, and Ch. 15 “serum sickness”) Active immunization:

schedule of routine childhood immunizations vaccines for adults “herd immunity” vaccine design: serum antibody vs memory

Types of vaccines: features, advantages and risks live attenuated, inactivated, subunit (toxoids, capsules, proteins) adjuvants, conjugate vaccines (see also Ch. 4, p. 78-84- properties of immunogens and epitopes

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Generating both cellular and humoral immunity B and T-cell immunodominant epitopes SMAA complexes, micelles, liposomes, ISCOMs DNA vaccines- vectors, administration, Chimeric recombinant vectors- viruses (vaccinia, canarypox), Salmonella

Transplantation (Ch. 17) :

Define: autograft, isograft, allograft, xenograft Allograft rejection- first set, second set, memory, specificity -role of T-cells (nude mice), CD4 vs CD8, dendritic cells -histocompatibilty (brief, we will cover tissue typing in class) major and minor histocompatibility loci alloreactivity of T-cells (Ch 9 p.241) Stages of graft rejection- sensitization, effector stage Clinical manifestations- hyperacute, acute, chronic rejection Immunosuppressive therapy- general and specific Tolerance- priviledged sites and early exposure Clinical transplantation- overview of common organs Xenotransplantation- pros and cons

Autoimmunity (Ch. 16):

Examples of autoimmune disorders- organ-specific, auto-antibodies, systemic- lupus, MS, rheumatoid arthritis

Tolerance- a brief overview of clonal deletion (central tolerance), peripheral tolerance- anergy, costimulation, Treg cells, apoptosis antigen sequestration failure of tolerance- some genes involved animal models- genes, experimental induction,

role of CD4 T-cells, Th1 vs Th2, MHC, TCRs Causes- sequestered Ags, molecular mimicry, inappropriate MHC expression,

polyclonal activation Treatments- anti-inflammatory, MAbs, oral tolerance

Cancer and the immune system (Ch. 21):

Overview of cancer- origins and terminology, transformation, oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes

Tumors of the immune system-leukemias Tumor antigens Immune response to tumors Tumor evasion of the immune system Immunotherapy for cancer- costimulation, cytokines, MAbs, cancer vaccines

Course Outline Faculty of Science  

Department of Biological Sciences   

BIOL 320-3 Immunology (3,0,0)

Fall 2009

Course Description:

An overview of the structure and function of the mammalian immune system at the cellular and molecular level. Topics include: cells of the immune system and their interactions; immunoglobulin structure, function and genetics; T-cells and cell-mediated immunity; major histocompatibility complex; regulation of the immune response; inappropriate immune responses (hypersensitivity and autoimmunity) and immunodeficiency syndromes.

Instructor: Phone/Voice Mail: Office: E-Mail: Office Hours: supplementary review session may be organized with the instructor.

Prerequisites: BIOL 213 (with a grade of C- or better);

Lectures: 3 hours per week.

Educational Objectives/Learning Outcomes:

The main objective of the course is to help you to learn about the human immune system works... vocabulary, characteristics of the major cells and tissues of the immune system, an appreciation for how the different parts of the immune system work together to fight infection, and how a hypersensitive or malfunctioning immune system can injure the body... so that you can read and understand articles and books about immunology, conduct a knowledgeable conversation with your doctor or other biologists, and amaze your friends and family with your store of useful information. More general objectives include learning to read and interpret the text book and scientific research articles and communicating your findings in an oral presentation.

Required Texts/Materials:

Kuby Immunology (6th ed.) by Kindt, Goldsby and Osborne (Freeman) (Copies of the 6th edition are on reserve in the library…the 5th ed is kind of out of date now).

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Course notes and supplementary material are also provided on Moodle. To sign into the course the key word is “Immunology”.

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Student Evaluation: Midterm Exam: 25%

Quizzes: 20% (best 4 of 5; worth 5% each)

Group Assignment: 15% (see below)

Final Exam: 40%

Tentative Outline of Lecture Topics: (Chapter references- Kuby 6th ed.)

Innate and Adaptive Immunity: an overview (Chapter 1) Cells and tissues of the immune system: (Ch. 2, 3 & 13) Humoral Immunity: Antibodies and antigens (Ch. 4) Antibody genetics (Ch. 5) B-cell ontogeny and activation (Ch. 11) Techniques using antibodies, monoclonal antibodies (Ch. 6) Complement (Ch. 7) Cellular Immunity: T-cells and T cell receptors (Ch. 9 & 10) MHC, antigen processing and presentation (Ch. 7& 17) Cell-Mediated Effector Responses (Ch. 14) Cytokines (Ch. 12) Hypersensitivity (Ch. 15) Tolerance (Ch. 16) and Immunodeficiency (Ch. 20)

For further information on these and other topics, check out the text Web site: http://bcs.whfreeman.com/immunology6e/

Group Assignment: (15%)

Groups of 2 or 3-4 students will be responsible for choosing a topic of interest in Immunology (see below) and producing a written assignment using Moodle Wiki. You can start with the appropriate chapters in the text as the basis for your presentation and supplement with up-to-date information using other resources such as scientific reviews (see “Current Opinion in Immunology,” “Trends in Immunology” and “Annual Review of Immunology” in our library) and material from the Internet (but be cautious about using reliable sources!)

As part of your report, each of you will have to summarize and comment on at least one recent “primary research paper” dealing with some aspect of the group’s topic. For example if your group chooses “DNA Vaccines” as a topic, each individual should choose a different article dealing with experiments using DNA vaccines. “Primary research papers” present the methods and results of actual experiments or clinical studies and are published in scientific journals such as Science, Nature, Immunology, New England Journal of Medicine, Nature

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Medicine, etc. Individual summaries may be submitted as attachments to the Wiki.

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Possible topics of interest: (there are many others- check with me before you get started)

Vaccines (Ch. 19): - Active immunization: schedule of routine childhood immunizations, vaccines for adults, “herd immunity”, vaccine design: serum antibody vs memory - Types of vaccines: features of different types, advantages and risks, adjuvants, new directions- SMAA complexes, micelles, liposomes, ISCOMs - DNA vaccines- vectors, administration, chimeric recombinant vectors (viruses- vaccinia, canarypox), Salmonella

Transplantation (Ch. 17) : - Graft rejection- stages of graft rejection, clinical manifestations, immunosuppressive therapy- general and specific - Clinical transplantation- overview of common organs - Xenotransplantation- pros and cons, examples

Autoimmunity (Ch. 16): - Choose an autoimmune disorder and investigate the clinical manifestations, possible causes, experimental systems for studying the disease and treatments (current and experimental) Examples include MS, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, Graves Disease, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis.

Cancer and the immune system (Ch. 21): - Tumors of the immune system-leukemias and lymphomas, causes and treatments - Immune response to tumors, tumor antigens, tumor evasion of the immune

system - Immunotherapy for cancer- costimulation, cytokines, MAbs, cancer vaccines

Hypersensitivity (Ch. 15): - Allergies, causes and treatments, e.g. asthma, food allergies - Type II antibody-mediated cytotoxicity, transfusion reactions, hemolytic anemia - Type III- immune complex mediated, serum sickness, lupus, arthritis - DHT (type IV)- contact dermatitis

Immunodeficiency (Ch. 20) - AIDS- current research, drugs and/or vaccines - Genetic forms- e.g. SCID, gene mutations, clinical manifestations, treatments

Immune Response to Infectious Disease (Ch. 18) - Influenza or other viruses, how they evade the immune system, vaccine development - Bacterial infections- strategies of pathogens to evade host immune response - Fungal or parasitic diseases- recent research on prevention and cure Other possible topics: Evolution of the immune system or MHC

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Production and uses of monoclonal antibodies Cytokines or anti-cytokines as therapeutic agents