Question

Discuss the major features of acquired immunity and innate immunity (2×10 marks)

Answer 1

The vertebrate immune response can be distinguished into two major classes, innate and acquired immunity. The features of these two branches can be found as below:

Innate immunity: This type of immunity is the one which is present in an individual by birth owing to genetic factors and thus, development of immune response against some specific immunogens even without any internal or external influence. This type of immune is specific to species and thus means that different species demonstrate immunity against different type of immunogens. For examples, humans are by-birth immune to a disease called canine distemper in dogs but dogs require immunization against it. This type of immunity is genetically transferred from one organism to another. It lacks memory response but does not exactly requires memory cells since the body itself generates a response against the pathogens.

Acquired immunity: This branch of immunity represents the one which is acquired by an individual after birth after a pre-exposure to an antigen. Accordingly, when an immunogen enters the body, the host immune response undergoes either cell-mediated or humoral activation to eradicate the immuongen from the body. During this process, the host develops memory response against the immunogen and thus, a highly elevated immune response is demonstrated by the host during any subsequent infections with the same immunogen. Thus, unlike innate immunity, this branch develops a memory response against the immunogens.