How can humoral immunity hurt the body?
1 Answer
The extracellular spaces are protected by the humoral immune response, in which antibodies produced by B cells cause the destruction of extracellular microorganisms and prevent the spread of intracellular infections.
This is often called antibody mediated immunity.
This response is triggered by an antigen and usually requires helper T cells.
Humoral immune deficiency refers to diseases resulting from impaired antibody production, because of either a molecular defect intrinsic to B cells or a failure of interactions between B and T cells.
Antibody deficiency characteristically leads to recurrent, often severe, upper and lower respiratory tract infections with encapsulated bacteria (eg, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae) especially in children. This is seen in 1/500 children.
