Current Topics in Microbiology and Immunology / Ergebnisse der Mikrobiologie und Immunitätsforschung

At the end of the last century and the beginning of this century, the prob­ lems of immunity in lower vertebrates and the influence of environmental temperature attracted attention for the first time (ERNST, 1890; WIDAL and SICARD, 1897; METCHNIKOFF, 1901). However, relatively little work has been done on this subject until recently. The early investigators were chiefly in­ terested in the immuno-pathological problems. They immunized various species of lower vertebrates essentially with bacterial vaccines; agglutinating, neutralizing and protective antibodies were detected in their blood. The in­ fluence of environmental temperature on the immune response was investigated, since this subject represented great economical and theoretical importance. Epizootic diseases were observed to occur in relation to the cold season of the year, when the decrease or spontaneous increase of water temperature occurred (SCHAPERCLAUS, 1965; BESSE et al. , 1965; KLONTZ et al. , 1965 WOOD,1966). The immunological deficiency of fish, caused by their natural or experimental stay in cold water, is now evident for both humoral and cellular immunity. In this review we will focus on two points: We shall attempt (1) to explain the mechanism by which the environmental temperature influences the immune resistance of fish to pathogens, (2) to determine the chronological location of this temperature-sensitive stage in the process of antibody formation, and to make some approaches to the general antibody formation mechanism. Influenza continues to be one of the major epidemic diseases of man and is, in fact, his only remaining pandemic disease (BEVERIDGE, 1969). This is largely because influenza virus undergoes extreme antigenic variation, the mechanism of which is still poorly understood. Two kinds of antigenic variation occur in influenza viruses, antigenic drift and major antigenic shifts; both involve chan­ ges in the hemagglutinin and neuraminidase antigens on the surface of the virus. Antigenic drift, which involves gradual changes in the surface antigens of influenza virus, is thought to result from the selection by an immune popula­ tion of mutant virus particles with altered antigenic determinants. These mutants therefore possess a growth advantage in the presence of antibody (FRAN­ CIS and MAASSAB, 1965; ARCHETTI and HORSFALL, 1950; HAMRE et aI., 1958). It has been shown that antigenic mutants isolated in vitro by selection with antibody have changes in amino acid sequence in the polypeptides of the hem­ agglutinin subunits (LAVER and WEBSTER, 1968) and it is likely that antigenic drift in the neuraminidase occurs by the same mechanism. Front Matter....Pages i-iii Paramyxovirus Replication....Pages 1-33 Viral and Bacterial Neuraminidases....Pages 35-74 On the Origin of Pandemic Influenza Viruses....Pages 75-105 Physiological and Genetic Studies of Polyoma Virus....Pages 107-133 Antigen Recognition by B and T Lymphocytes....Pages 135-165 Genetic Control of Immune Responses....Pages 167-200 Back Matter....Pages 201-258