3128 - Principles of Immunology

Course Description

Join us to explore the role the immune system in health and disease. Learn how the immune response protects us from harmful microbes such as viruses and bacteria, yet if poorly regulated can also lead to immune-mediated diseases such as allergy and autoimmunity. Immune responses are what protect us against these dangers. But, improperly balanced, these responses can play a role in cancer, transplant rejection, allergies and autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and diabetes. This course is intended for those who wish or require an introduction to the molecular and cellular components of the immune system. You will learn how they cooperate to protect us from microbial threats, and how, in some cases, a lack of regulation in this system can contribute to disease. This course is offered in collaboration with the Faculty of Medicine.

Learning Outcomes

Learn how immune cells, such as neutrophils, macrophages, B cells and T cells reside in tissues or circulate through various organs
Understand how immune cells use specialized molecular receptors to recognize and be activated by harmful microbes (pathogens)
Understand how activated immune cells implement a range of response mechanisms such as inflammation, phagocytosis, antibody generation and direct killing, which allow them to eliminate pathogens and protect the host
Learn how a lack of immune response regulation can lead to disease and understand some specific examples

To see a trailer that describes SCS3128 and its instructors, please go to: http://www.immunology.utoronto.ca/online-learning

Notes

The hours of this course correspond to a half-course.

Required textbook:

Primer to the Immune Response, 2014, (2^nd Edition), Tak W. Mak, Mary, E. Saunders and Bradley D. Jett. Elsevier Inc., Amsterdam.

Currently, this course cannot be applied towards any undergraduate degree offered by the University of Toronto. Before registering, students planning to use this course for admission to any academic program are strongly advised to consult with the institution to which they are applying and obtain written confirmation that this course will meet the prerequisite of their intended program.

Requirements:

Students need access to a reliable high–speed internet connection for the entire duration of the course. The University's copyright restrictions do not allow the online lectures to be distributed on recordable media like DVDs. On Macintosh computers, the video clips work best with the browser Internet Explorer, but the quality of synchronization may vary. This is not an issue that has arisen for PC computers.

The information to allow access to the course materials will be sent to students approximately three days prior to the start date. If you are a late registrant, access information will take three business days to generate. Kindly register in time to start the course on the first day.

For this course and other SCS online courses, 100% of the tuition fee will be refunded if the withdrawal takes place within 10 business days following course start. No refund will be given after this deadline.

Course Details:

The course is taught by Faculty members in the Department of Immunology in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto and is administered through the University’s School of Continuing Studies. It consists of 24 video lectures of approximately one hour each, with short, live-action animations or interviews provided for further enrichment in some cases. Each lecture is presented in five or six segments. Each segment is followed by a multiple-choice question designed to provide a pause for you to consolidate and reflect on the information.

Please refer to this important sheet of frequently asked questions

The course is divided into six units in which you will learn about the following:

Unit 1 – The Basics

History and Overview of Immunology; plagues, discovery of vaccination; birth of modern immunology
Innate and Adaptive Immunity; broadly-specific vs. highly-specific recognition, clonal selection theory, innate-adaptive interplay
Cells and Tissues of the Immune System; hematopoiesis, leukocytes and lymphoid organs and tissues
Leukocyte Communication and Movement; cytokines, chemokines, extravasation, signal transduction

Unit 2 – Innate Immunity

Innate Immune Barriers; anatomical, mechanical and physiological barriers, including the microbiota
Innate Recognition; pattern recognition receptors and the pathogen- and damage-associated molecular patterns they recognize
Innate Mechanisms of Defense; phagocytosis, complement activation, inflammation, cytotoxicity
Innate Immune Responses and Disease; bacterial sepsis, acute respiratory distress syndrome in SARS and influenza, innate immune deficiency

Unit 3 – B Cells

Immunoglobulin Proteins; heavy and light chains, constant and variable domains, hypervariable regions; bifunctional structure, antigen recognition, B cell epitopes
Immunoglobulin Genes; immunoglobulin gene rearrangement, generation of antibody diversity
B Cell Development; phases, heavy and light chain rearrangement, allelic exclusion, self-tolerance
B Cell Activation; T-dependent and T-independent activation, follicles, germinal centres, somatic hypermutation, affinity maturation, isotype switching, memory response
Antibody Effector Function; neutralization, complement activation, Fc receptor interactions, opsonization, antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity

Unit 4 – T Cells

T Cell Receptor Proteins and Genes; discovery of the TCR, gene organization and rearrangement, signal transduction and coreceptors, peptide-binding groove
MHC Structure and Function; history of the MHC, MHC polymorphism and its role in health and disease
Antigen Processing and Presentation; generation of peptides from exogenous and endogenous proteins, presentation by MHC class I and MHC class II proteins, T cell epitopes
T Cell Development and Innate Lymphoid Cells; phases of T cell development defined by flow cytometry, positive and negative selection for effective, self-tolerant mature T cell repertoire

Unit 5 – The Adaptive Immune Response

T Cell Activation; three signal model of naïve T cell activation, role of lymph node architecture and dendritic cells, contraction of response, memory response
T Cell Differentiation and Effector Responses; Th subsets, cytokine-induced polarization of Th effector function, Th-induced response to Leishmania as a model of an anti-pathogen response
Adaptive Responses to “Self”: “Autoimmunity”; peripheral tolerance, determinants and examples of autoimmunity (multiple sclerosis and systemic lupus erythematosus), the hygiene hypothesis

Unit 6 – Immunity to Infection

Immune Responses to Pathogens; responses to viruses, intracellular and extracellular bacteria, parasites (protozoa and worms) and fungi; immune evasion by pathogens
Vaccination and Immunotherapeutics; principles of vaccination, types and examples of vaccines, use of genetically engineered antibodies for immunotherapy
Immunity to Influenza; influenza history, biology and evolution, seasonal strains, influenza disease
Influenza Vaccines; general approaches, current vaccines, challenges to development of more effective vaccines

Recommendations

Although there are no prerequisites for this challenging course, you are recommended to have good standing in a first-year general biology course. You must have consistent access to a reliable high-speed Internet connection.