I’ve been reading/listening to lots about the immune system, particularly B and T cells. And thought it may be worth sharing some links to info I’ve found useful. If others have useful resources please chip in! There’s a lot of sources here and duplication, I found reading/listening to different sources useful in reinforcing ideas. Text Bite Sized Immunology B Cells https://www.immunology.org/public-information/bitesized-immunology/cells/b-cells Generation of B Cell Diversity https://www.immunology.org/public-i...elopment/generation-b-cell-antibody-diversity T Cell generation in the Thymus https://www.immunology.org/public-i.../immune-development/t-cell-development-thymus Cytokines: Introduction https://www.immunology.org/public-i...gy/receptors-molecules/cytokines-introduction Kyowakirin Antibody types (and further antibody information) https://www.kyowakirin.com/antibody/basics/isotypes.html Cleveland Clinic B Cells Types and Function https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/24669-b-cells Helper T Cells https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/23193-helper-t-cells Cytokines https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/24585-cytokines IRepetoire B Cell and T Cell Structure and Function https://irepertoire.com/t-cell-and-b-cell-overview/ Diversity and differentiation in the adaptive immune system https://irepertoire.com/diversity-and-differentiation-in-the-adaptive-immune-system/ Videos Osmosis.org (their main website requires signing up, see below for YouTube links) Introduction to the Immune System https://www.osmosis.org/learn/Introduction_to_the_immune_system T Cell development https://www.osmosis.org/learn/T-cell_development B Cell development https://www.osmosis.org/learn/B-cell_development (And subsequent videos look interesting too) Osmosis Youtube channel (a subset of resources from their website, but doesn’t require signing up) Introduction to the immune system https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gR84OJ_EGxk Somatic hypermutation and affinity maturation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpocPREtoSw Cytokines https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAqO0Mq19JQ Ninja Nerd Immunology playlist https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTF9h-T1TcJj4AOPCxGxOUTH0IVmaH7_8 Khan Academy Immunologic system introduction https://www.khanacademy.org/science...-phagocytes-in-innate-or-nonspecific-immunity And of course Wikipedia!
I also used some Deep Research summaries and Audio Generated summaries from Google Gemini, happy to share these too although I understand there are mixed feelings on ethics and accuracy of these.
Recommended by @jnmaciuch https://aklectures.com/ and their YouTube channel https://m.youtube.com/@AKLECTURES Immune system playlist https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9jo2wQj1WCNaYmBK_B81PlrX4OYLwb13
Some useful terminology Names for T helper cells CD4, CD4+ or CD4-positive, Th, helper T cell Names for cytotoxic T cells CD8, CD8+ or CD8-positive, Tc, cytotoxic T lymphocyte, CTL, T-killer cell, cytolytic T cell, killer T cell (not to be confused with natural killer/NK cells or natural killer T/NKT cells)
I found this guy's videos quite nice during my Master's: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqTetbgey0ac_tvd5WeTOYqUPECW4NmnY
Thanks for putting together all these resources @hotblack! Just a quick note about the cytotoxic label: while generally it does refer to cytotoxic CD8+ T cells, it is possible for CD4+ T cells to be cytotoxic, and for CD8+ T cells to be non-cytotoxic. CD4 and CD8 are surface proteins that can be used to identify and sort T cells (which do have their own functions), but cytotoxicity refers to a phenotypic state characterized by the release of high levels of interferon gamma, perforin, granzyme B, etc.
Thanks @jnmaciuch is there a better shorthand way of phrasing what I have? Or does it inherently lose detail? Corrections gratefully accepted! This is why I to steer clear of writing stuff and just paste resources! I find loads of things really useful in helping my understanding of papers here but don’t have the knowledge to be sure of accuracy.
I think it is fine. Thee are an infinite number of ifs and buts for lymphocyte function but these basic statements work pretty well. CD8 goes with MHC Class I and recognition of bad things inside cells (and the option of killing those cells). CD4 goes with MHC class II and bad things outside cells - which antibodies are also directed at, so CD4s tend to help B cells, if not always. That is how things were at first approximation in 1990 and I don't think things have changed all that much since.
No no you’re doing a great job—just wanted to point it out because this happens to be a field where the terminology can get so incredibly confusing. What you wrote will be correct in 90% of circumstances! I just wanted to make a general heads up because there are an infinite number of ifs-ands-or-buts as Jonathan said, but that fact is not always clear or obvious for people just starting to learn immunology. It can make people feel like they can’t keep things straight or must’ve misremembered something (especially if they’re already dealing with brain fog) when in reality they’re just encountering one of the 10% situations where things get weird
Thanks both of you. Yes I’m quite used to not having things straight these days. It seems a useful thing to be comfortable with when looking at these topics, ‘it depends’ or ‘well this normally does x but can also do y’ seems very widespread. I thought tracking some core terminology may help people understand papers and abstracts. A lot of what i’ve been doing is asking myself ‘what does that word mean’ and going off down a rabbit-hole. And it’s only recently I realised that all these different ways of talking about T cells I was reading are largely referring to two variants. Having language that is good enough for 90% of situations is probably ‘good enough’ for most of us.
Absolutely! I wish I had access to a community of others pointing things out like this when I was first starting to learn immunology on my own (and I still have a lot to learn)! Thanks again for doing this work
Thanks @jnmaciuch I’ve added some resources on cytokines and a couple of non-signup/paywalled osmosis resources from youtube for earlier topics. I may play around with layout for the first couple of posts to tidy things up at some point to stop it becoming unwieldy, any recommendations welcome
