Question

Your best friend is suspicious of vaccination – they think it is a profit-driven government plot to inject harmful substances into the general public. Explain to them the difference in primary and secondary immune responses to show why it is useful to use a vaccination to create primary response before being exposed to pathogen.

Answer 1

The first time our body is evaded by pathogen and the antigen is not seen by the immune cells so no antibody is there in our body against antigen The innate immune response will clone the appropriate lymphocytes during the latent period. The adaptive immune system takes time to form the plasma cell against the pathogen .After that the amount of antibody in our body would increase.This phase of increase antibodies is log phase.After some time the concentration of antibody in our body would decrease forming decline phase.During the primary immune response the IgM is predominantly produced.

The pathogen with the same antigen is again encountered and the response generated is secondary immune response.During primary response the plasma cell and memory B,T cells for the reinfection with the same pathogen are being produced.We have specific antibody against that pathogen and the latent period woud be much shorter.In secondary immune response the Ig G is produced.Secondary immune response is quicker because of the circulating lymphocytes in blood ,lymph.We here require lower amount of antigen for the antibody response.Also in the latent phase the concnetration of antibodies is not sharply decreased.