Learning about the immune system

hotblack

hotblack

Senior Member (Voting Rights)
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


Somatic hypermutation and affinity maturation


Cytokines


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!
 
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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)
 
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hotblack said:
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)
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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.
 
hotblack said:
is there a better shorthand way of phrasing what I have?
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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.
 
hotblack said:
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.
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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
 
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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.
 
hotblack said:
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.
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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
 
forestglip said:
Another Khan Academy immune system section from a different course. I've only skimmed both, but I think this one might be more basic:

Types of immunity and the immune system
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Good call. They seem to have a few main paths even on Khan Academy. Maybe arranging some of this information by ‘level’ rather than topic may help?

I found some topics I was interested in not included in the structured courses so just sought them out, but others may find structure works best?

edit (I'm breaking this out into a new thread as it's a bit more general than immunology topics)
 
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