Immunity and the Immune system is a topic that students do find hard.

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Remember that specific immunity requires clonal selection and clonal expansion - and that each B and T lymphocyte has one shape of receptor on the surface which is complementary to only one antigen.

Memory cells are produced in response to experiencing an antigen (either on a pathogen or a vaccine) - hence when you subsequently encounter the same antigen, the production of antibodies (specific only to that antigen) will be quicker and larger. If the pathogen mutates, then you will no longer possess a specific immunity as the antigens (proteins or glycoproteins) will be a different shape and no longer complementary to the receptors on the memory cells.

Learning the inflammatory response and being able to explain each part (rise in temperature, swelling, increased permeability...) will help to reduce the number of pathogens is important.

You must know the structure and function of each part of the antibody.

There seems to be an obsession with opsonins.

You need to know phagocytosis in detail (phagolysosome, hydrolytic enzymes ....)

You must be able to explain the differences between the primary and secondary responses of antibody production.

Here are some questions and the markscheme

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