Immune System
By: Shelbie Rhodes and Sydney Archibald
What is the function of the Immune System?
Define pathogen, active immunity, passive immunity, antigen, and antibody.
Active immunity - the immunity that results from the production of antibodies by the immune system in response to the presence of an antigen.
Passive immunity - the short term immunity that results from the inroduction of antibodies from another person or animal.
Antigen - a toxin or other foreign substance that induces an immune response in the body, especially the production of antibodies.
Antibody - a blood protein produced in response to and counteracting a specific antigen. Antibodies combine chemically with substances that the body recognizes as alien, such has bacteria, viruses, and foreign substances in the blood.
Explain why antibiotics are effective against bacteria but not against viruses
Bacterial pathogens can be killed using antibiotics. Antibiotics work by interrupting metabolic pathways in prokaryotic cells. Some bacteria prevent the proper formation of a cell wall, and others prevent bacteria from completing cell division.
Viruses cannot be killed by antibiotics because viruses lack metabolic pathways. Viruses can reproduce without having their own metaboloic pathwys by infecting eukaryotic organisms and hijacking their metabolic pathways, which are not affected by antibiotics.