Difference Between Antigen and Pathogen ?

Antigen vs Pathogen  

In our daily life, we are exposed to different substances. Even though most of the people, most of the time, are healthy and have the ability to do their daily activities, sometimes, some of them fall sick or get illness, which is caused by pathogens.

Pathogens are any foreign organisms that cause diseases in host plants and animals; e.g. virus and bacteria. Antigen is a molecule located in the cell wall of bacteria or the coating of organisms. Antigen causes our immune system to produce the antibody against it and protect our body from harmful foreign organisms.

What is Antigen?

Originally the term Antigen came from Antibody generator. It may be any substance, which comes from the environment or forms within the body. Generally, antigens are protein and polysaccharide (capsule, coats, cell wall, and flagella) located in the cell walls of bacteria or in the coating of other organisms. It causes our immune system to produce the antibody against it. Antibody is used by the immune system to identify and neutralize the foreign particles like bacteria and viruses. Basically, antigens are categorized as self-antigen and non-self-antigen. Self-antigens are tolerated by the immune system while the non-self-antigens are identified as invaders and can be attacked by the immune system. Non self-antigens include egg white, pollen from the organs, and transplanted tissues.

At the molecular level, an antibody has the antigen binding site, in which, the antigen has the ability to bind. These triggers the response of different antibodies based on its match like a lock and key. An Immunogenic is an example for a specific type of antigen which is able to induce the immune response. The two types of antigens are exogenous and endogenous. Exogenous antigens enter the body from outside. E.g. by ingestion or inhalation. These are taken into the antigen present cells by endocytosis and then exocytosis process it into fragments. Endogenous forms within the normal cells by cell metabolism or viral intracellular bacterial infection.

What is Pathogen?

Pathogens are easily called as infectious agents. We contact pathogens in our daily life. These are microorganisms that cause diseases in host plants and animals; e.g. virus, bacteria, and fungi. Not all microbes are harmful; pathogens refer specifically to the ones that can cause disease in the host. The human body also contains helpful bacteria, which is called good bacteria. It may be destroyed by chemotherapy or HIV.

Pathogen transmission occurs in many ways such as fecal-oral route, body fluid, through blood, breast milk, direct or indirect contact.

Nowadays, there are many medical advances available against infection by pathogens like use of vaccination, antibiotics, and fungicide. Mostly Pathogens are negative but not all. Pathogens serve as natural or biological control, to suppress the arthropod pest populations.

The types of pathogens are viral, bacterial, fungal, other parasites, and prionic; e.g. Mycobacterium tuberculosi (a causative agent for most tuberculosis) and Fungs (affect athlete’s feet).

What is the difference between Antigen and Pathogen?

• Pathogen is an organism but antigen is not an organism, it is a molecule located in the cell wall of bacteria or the coating of other microorganism.

• Pathogen is a harmful organism that causes disease in its host.

• Antigen triggers the response of difference kind of antibodies based on its match like a lock and key hypothesis.

• Pathogen refers to any foreign organism, which is not part of the body, and presents inside the body, mainly in the blood stream, but antigen is a part of the body.

• Pathogens serve as biological controller but antigen doesn’t.

                               THANKS FOR READ.

 

Like us on facebook

https://www.facebook.com/navjivanmehnagar

 

 

 

 

 

 

Difference Between Humoral and Cell Mediated Immunity ?

Humoral vs Cell Mediated Immunity

 

Immunity is the ability of an organism to defend against pathogens and toxins and to avoid infections and diseases. This is basically provided by the immune system, which is composed primarily of individual cells spread throughout the body, rather than forming into organs. The immune system has two broad branches; innate and adaptive immunity. Adaptive immunity is also known as the specific immunity, which provides pathogen- specific immunity in vertebrates. Adaptive immune system is basically composed of T-lymphocyte and B-lymphocyte cells. According to the composition of the adaptive system, it can be further divided into two categories; humoral immunity and cell-mediated immunity. The adaptive immunity is very special as it is present only in vertebrates, and is able to recognize different foreign antigens in a very precise way.

What is Humoral Immunity?

Humoral immunity is also known as antibody-mediated immunity. It is mediated by antibody molecules secreted by the B- lymphocyte cells that can neutralize specific pathogens outside the cells. B-cells are bone marrow derived, and each cell makes only one kind of antibody which specifically reacts on a particular pathogen. Antibody diversity is generated by DNA rearrangement. These antibodies can directly neutralize viruses. For certain pathogens, the antibodies bind to target the cells and signal phagocytes or other white blood cells or other defense mechanisms to attack them.

What is Cell Mediated Immunity?

Cell mediated immunity is mediated by T-cell antigen receptors made by thymus-derived T-cells. As the name implies, T-cells themselves specifically bind with the antigens, instead of releasing the receptors from the cell body. Each T-cell makes only one kind of T-cell antigen receptor. T-cell receptor is composed of four proteins, namely, two large (α) and two small (β) chains. Each chain has constant and variable regions. The variable regions determine the specificity of the receptor toward a particular pathogen while the variable regions project outside helping to bind the T-cells to the antigen cell. The cell- mediated immune system is important as it eliminates tumor cells before they can grow and spread very much. This process is known as ‘immunological surveillance’. Also, when a tissue from an unrelated individual is introduced into another individual, this immune system will respond and kill the transplanted tissue immediately.

What is the difference between Humoral and Cell Mediated Immunity?

• Humoral immunity is mediated by B- cells while cell-mediated immunity is mediated by T-cells.
• In the humoral immunity, the B-cells secrete antibodies whereas in the cell-mediated immunity, the T-cells do not secrete receptors. T-cell receptors are bound to the T-cells and the cells themselves bind with antigens.
• The humoral immunity is more important to eliminate soluble antigens and to destroy extracellular microorganisms while the cell-mediated immunity is more important to eliminate intracellular organisms (such as viruses).
• The antibodies are used in the humoral immunity whereas the receptors are used in the cell-mediated immunity to defend against pathogens.
• Unlike in the cell-mediated immunity, the antigens are destroyed by B-cell antibodies outside the B-cells in the humoral immunity.

                               THANKS FOR READ.

 

Like us on facebook

https://www.facebook.com/navjivanmehnagar

Difference Between O Positive and O Negative ?

O Positive vs O Negative

 

Human blood can be classified into four different types of groups according to the antigen in the cell surface of the red blood cells. In 1900, Landsteiner found the two types of antigens called type A and B. So, the surface of red blood cells of a person can have either antigen A or B or neither of them. According to these discoveries blood was classified into four groups such as A, B, AB, or O (Verma and Agarwal, 2005). When deciding the ABO blood system, another important determinant is the antibodies, which is in the serum of the blood. As an example; if the red blood cell surface has the type A antigen, the serum of the blood contains the antibodies against type B red blood cells and vice versa. The ABO blood system is inherited through three alleles in chromosome 09 and alleles I^A (A), I^B (B), and ii (O) are inherited to the second generation from each parent. One parent has only two of these three alleles. Alleles I^A and I^B are dominant over ii (O).

Another system used to group the blood is Rh (Rhesus) blood group system. The presence or absence of the Rh antigen on the cell membrane of the red blood cells determines the positive or negative condition of the blood.  Rh gene encodes for the two different antigens C and c, E and e with D, but for the positive or negative condition of the blood type, only D antigen is important. In the transfusion, Rh positive blood is given to Rh negative person, and that causes an incompatibility, but not in the first time. Immune system produces Rh antigens in Rh negative person’s body and the next transfusion of Rh positive blood will cause destruction of blood cells.

O Positive Blood

O positive blood type is determined by the alleles of ii. It lacks the antigens in the red blood cell surface. However, O blood group people have both anti-A antibodies and anti-B antibodies in the plasma, that act against type A blood and type B blood. Usually an O blood group person can receive blood from an individual who has only O blood group. If the receiver has O positive blood, then donor can be O positive or O negative. O positive individual can give blood only to persons having A positive, B positive, AB positive, or O positive blood.

O Negative Blood

Type O negative blood is determined by the same alleles that determine the O positive blood; i.e. ii, and it lacks Rh factor and both anti-A antibodies and anti-B antibodies in the plasma. So, type O negative can be given safely to all blood groups, type A positive and negative, B positive and negative etc. So, it can be considered as universal donor.

What is the difference between O Positive and O Negative?

• The main difference between O positive and O negative is that O positive blood has Rh factor on their cell membrane of the red blood cell, whereas O negative does not.
• Type O positive has antibodies; it has both anti-A antibodies and anti-B antibodies in the plasma that act against type A blood and type B blood, whereas O negative Blood lacks it.
• Type O positive blood can be given only to persons having A positive, B positive, AB positive, and O positive blood, while O negative person can donate blood to any person.
• Type O negative blood can be considered as universal donor whereas O positive cannot. So at emergency cases, anyone can be given O negative blood.

                               THANKS FOR READ.

 

Like us on facebook

https://www.facebook.com/navjivanmehnagar

Difference Between Precipitation and Agglutination Reactions ?

Precipitation vs Agglutination Reaction

Treatment of infectious diseases is dependent upon their correct diagnosis. Antigen-antibody reactions are techniques using which antigens and antibodies are measured. Among these antigen-antibody reactions, serological reactions are in vitro reactions that are most popular methods for diagnosis of diseases and for identification of antigens and antibodies. Precipitation reactions and agglutination reactions are some of the common examples of these serological reactions. There are differences in these tests that will be explained in this article.

Mixing of antibodies with their matching antigens on a surface such as animal cell, erythrocytes, or bacteria results in antibodies cross linking the particles forming visible clumps. This reaction is termed as agglutination. This serological reaction is very similar to precipitation reaction though both are highly specific depending upon specific antibody and antigen pair. The main difference between these two serological reactions pertains to the size of antigens. In the case of precipitation, antigens are soluble molecules while in the case of agglutination; antigens are large, insoluble molecules.

Another difference between precipitation and agglutination is that agglutination reaction is more sensitive than precipitation reaction because a lot of soluble antigens and antibody molecules are required to form a visible precipitation reaction. However, it is possible to make a precipitation reaction sensitive by converting it into agglutination reaction. This can be achieved by attaching soluble antigens to large, inert carriers such as erythrocytes or latex beads. In clinical medicine, agglutination reactions have many applications. They can be used to type blood cells for transfusion, for identification of bacterial cultures and to detect the presence of a specific antibody in the serum of the patient. Agglutination is primary used to check if a patient has a bacterial infection or not.

Agglutination reaction vs Precipitation reaction

• Agglutination reaction and precipitation reaction have great importance in immunology as they are serological reactions that help in the detection of bacterial infection in the serum of a patient.

• Major difference between precipitation and agglutination is the size of antigens involved.

• Antigens are soluble in case of precipitation while they are insoluble in agglutination

• Agglutination is more sensitive than precipitation.

 

                               THANKS FOR READ.

 

Like us on facebook

https://www.facebook.com/navjivanmehnagar

Difference Between Antigen and Antibody ?

Antigen vs Antibody

The core understanding of immunology, as well as some aspects of microbiology, pathology, and dermatology is based on the understanding of the core concepts of antibody and antigen reactions. These are the building blocks of vast bases for knowledge and newly developing technologies to combat varied amounts of diseases. Antigens and antibodies can be viewed now in action, and they have become markers of investigation, to ascertain the diagnosis, as well as to assess the severity of the condition.

Antigen

An antigen is a substance that on introduction to the body creates a cascade of activities prompting an immune response. These substances can be molecules, like proteins or cells like bacteria. They are usually made up of proteins and polysaccharides. There are two main varieties of antigens. One is the self antigen and the other is non self antigen. Usually, the self antigens do not provoke reaction from the immune system, but they can usually lead to an immune response as detailed in autoimmune diseases. Each antigen has an epitope, or an area on the antigen that reacts with the other components or the histo compatibility area. This area acts as a key to lock in the antibody.

Antibody

An antibody is a varied size protein molecule, which is present in the blood and secretions, and acts upon the antigens to produce the ultimate resolution of inactivation or destruction. These are produced from B cells, which become differentiated into plasma cells as a response to the immune system. These proteins are usually “Y” shaped particles, and the two hands of the “Y” contain paratopes or locks on the antibody, which is attached to the key of the epitope of antigens. There are main five subclasses, which differs from each other due to the number of heavy and light chains. They also differ in their functions as to the location, trans placental transportation and to write another spooky episode.

What is the difference between Antibody and Antigen?

• Both antigen and antibody are paramount for immunology. Both partake in autoimmune diseases and the end result is the same.

• Both antigens and antibodies are microscopic particles, and contain proteins. Antigens has combinations from polysaccharides as well, whereas antibodies are purely made up of proteins.

• Antigens can be cells, but antibodies are never cells.

• Antigens act as the key, whereas the antibodies act as the lock.

• There are mainly two types of antigens, which are self and non self.

• Antibodies are made of five main subcategories according to the proteins constructs. Depending on the permissive nature, it projects aspects of the antibody like placental transference, secretion, etc.

Thus, consider the antigen or the causative particle, as a key to lock on the antibody or the disease fighter. The key can take several forms, but the epitope has to be the same as the paratrope.

 

                               THANKS FOR READ.

 

Like us on facebook

https://www.facebook.com/navjivanmehnagar

Difference Between Smooth and Rough Endoplasmic Reticulum ?

Smooth vs Rough Endoplasmic Reticulum

  SER vs RER
 

Cell is the basic functional unit of life, and it is composed of few organelles inside. Endoplasmic reticulum is one of the very important structures in a cell, and there are two major types of it known as smooth and rough. Endoplasmic reticulum is often abbreviated as ER; hence, smooth type is denoted as SER and the rough type is symbolized as RER. There are interesting differences in structures and functions between these two types and, this article summarizes most of those.

Smooth Endoplasmic Reticulum

Smooth endoplasmic reticulum (SER) is named because of its smooth surface. The surface is smooth because there are no ribosomes. The structure of SER is a branching network of tubules and vesicles. These networks structures are important to facilitate newly synthesized proteins to be folded correctly. In addition, it contributes to maintain the volume of a cell at a certain level.

Usually, the location that SER is mostly found is close to the nuclear envelope. SER plays important roles in many cellular metabolic processes in a cell such as lipid and steroid synthesis, carbohydrate breakdown, and regulating the calcium levels. Additionally, the detoxification of drugs and steroid metabolism have also been performed with SER in cells. SER assists the cellular functions such as gluconeogenesis with the presence of glucose-6-phosphatase enzyme. The network structure provides an increased surface area to store and put into effect some important enzymes. The products of those processes are also stored inside the SER structures. SER has been proven for its importance to attach receptors on proteins in the cell membrane. Furthermore, SER functions differently depending on the type of tissue, but above mentioned functions are usual at most of the times.

Rough Endoplasmic Reticulum

Rough endoplasmic reticulum (RER) is the ER with ribosomes present on the surface. Because of the presence of ribosomes, the whole structure appears rough, and it is so named. Ribosomes are attached to the surface with ribophorin, a glycoprotein receptor. In addition, this binding is not permanent, but it keeps bound and released always, except while a protein is being synthesized where the ribosome is always bound to ER.

The structure of RER is a large network of tubules and vesicles. It should be noted that the RER surface is connected with the nuclear envelope or in other words, it looks like an extension of the nuclear envelope. The basic functions of RER include the facilitation of sites to synthesize protein, a reserve of cell membranes, and formation of lysosome enzymes. In addition, its structure contributes to maintain the stability to the body of the cell.

What is the difference between Smooth and Rough Endoplasmic Reticulum?

• RER has ribosomes on the surface but, not in SER. Therefore, RER is observed as rough while SER as smooth in the microscope.

• SER is attached to the nuclear envelope while RER is continuous with the nuclear envelope.

• RER contributes for the protein synthesis more than SER does.

• RER mainly functions as providing home for ribosomes to produce, whereas SER serves several other functions such as detoxification, metabolism, and steroid synthesis.

• The structure of RER is larger than SER.

• RER is a reserve of cell membranes, as it provides extra cell membrane portions whenever is needed, but SER does not often do it.

 

                               THANKS FOR READ.

 

Like us on facebook

https://www.facebook.com/navjivanmehnagar

Difference Between Radiation and Chemotherapy ?

Chemotherapy vs Radiotherapy

Cancer was once known to be the most incurable disease. It is usually caused by some malfunctioning of the cells inside the human body. There are so many external and internal causes for this disease. As the time moves on, the solutions to the problems are given by the professionals in this field. The two kinds of solutions given for cancer are the chemotherapy and radiotherapy. The two processes are very different in nature and depending on the level of disease, one of the two treatments is recommended for the cancer patients.

Chemotherapy is that kind of treatment for cancer patients that uses the chemicals in the process. The result of this treatment causes the unwanted cells to be damaged by the use of the chemicals. It is true that the drugs used in the treatment gives a favorable response, but they might cause damage to some normal cells as well. It is ideal to use this treatment for those patients who could discover their disease at early stage, because the drugs positively affect to the roots causing the growth of the tumors at this stage. This therapy fails in the situations where the problem is diagnosed at later phases and when the drugs are unable to cope with the growing number of cancer cell activities. The side effects includes the damage to the hairs of the body, fatigue, the darkening of the skin color, reduction in the blood platelets and the swelling in the digestive system of the body. Two other types include the treatment by using chemicals at the time when the disease is diagnosed at the earlier stages and secondly when it is cured and the treatment is repeated for the preventive care.

The radiotherapy is also used for the treatment of this disease. But the process of the treatment is in such a way that the use of rays is done during the process instead of using chemicals. The main feature of this process is that, as it does destroy the unwanted cells of the body where it is conducted, it only has side effects limited to that portion of the body. The treatment is done for the same purpose- the killing of the unwanted cells. Different parts of body cells respond differently to the treatments. At some areas the cells causing the tumor are destroyed rapidly, while in other parts the affects are not the same. Smaller tumors will have more positive affects, and not all tumors can be treated in this way. But this process also destroys the normal cells too. Radiation can be given to the body from outer as well as inner side.

The most prominent difference between the two therapies is the way of their treatment and the side effects are also different in both. In the Chemotherapy, chemicals are used to treat the cancer cells and in Radiotherapy, the radiations are used. The treatment through Chemotherapy involves the treatment of the whole body, and so the affects are not limited to just a single area of the body in the end, like the damage to the normal cells of the whole body. As for the Radiotherapy, the treatment is applied on a specific area and thus, the reactions are just limited to that part and it can also be applied externally. It is said that the radiotherapy is less painful than the other one. In the chemotherapy all the past and present details are counted before the treatment, in radiotherapy the process is a bit shorter one.

 

                               THANKS FOR READ.

 

Like us on facebook

https://www.facebook.com/navjivanmehnagar

Difference Between Chemo and Radiation ?

Chemo vs Radiation

Chemo and Radiation are two types of treatments for people suffering from cancer. Chemo is a treatment which is used on different stage of cancer disease. Chemo is used in medical sciences for treatment of solid tumors which effect different types of organs like bowel and breast etc. Chemo treatment is also used in assistance with other treatments such as radiation treatment. Chemo treatment is done for different purposes such as shrinking tumor for its easy removal. It can be given after surgery has been completed to ensure complete removal of cancer cells from an individual’s body. Chemo is used for shrinking effects of cancer tumor that have spread to different organs of the body. Chemo treatment is also carried out at time when radio treatment is carried out in order to speed up treatment process.

Radiation is another type of treatment for cancer which kills cells that are responsible for caner with the use of radiations. These radiations help in shrinking tumors and killing cancerous cells. Different types of radiations used for treatment are Gamma or X-Rays or charged particles. Radiation treatment is carried out with internal or external treatment procedure in which radiation is provided from outside the body or within the body respectively. 50 percent of patients of cancer in the world receive radiation treatment at some stage. Radiation treatment is used to shrink tumors which to avoid them from spreading in other parts of the body. Radiations are also given to tumors which are growing in some bone and are resulting in pain to the patient. This type of treatment is also involved when person’s ability to drink and eat is being affected.

Radiation and Chemo are two effective treatments that are performed to cure thousands of cases of cancer worldwide. These are also, at times, used to reduce the size of cancerous cells to allow patient to live longer in case complete treatment isn’t possible. These treatments seem similar in their effects but are different in a number of ways. Chemo treatment makes use of bloodstream to blow out the cells of caner. However, Chemo treatment can sometimes destroy other types of cells as they can not be focused on cancer cells only and can result in damaging other cells which are not cancerous. In Chemo, DNA of a cell is damaged causing it not to redevelop it. On the other hand, radiation can be focused on cancer cells only making it better treatment as compared to Chemo treatment. Radiation is used for removal of cancerous cells and for shrinking tumors. The Chemo type of treatment is used to treat lymphoma, mveloma, and leukemia as well as cancers in ovaries, lungs or breast. Therapy with radiations is focused on solid tumors only allowing them to be used in spine and skin treatment as well as for curing the cases of breast cancer. Chemotherapy involves use of medicines for cancer treatment. On the other hand radiations involve usage of radiation that can have effects on body at a later stage. Additional side effects can be seen such as inflammation through radiation while chemo treatment doesn’t have this effect.

 

                               THANKS FOR READ.

 

Like us on facebook

https://www.facebook.com/navjivanmehnagar