Passive immunization

Passive immunization:

• natural - IgG crossing the placenta, antibodies in breast milk;
• artificial - is used to quickly induce immunity by administering ready-made antibodies.

Types of antibodies used for passive immunization

• Animal - heterologous, xenogeneic globulins.
• Human - homologous, allogeneic normal or hyperimmune globulins:
  • Monospecific - designed to passively increase immunity against certain infectious diseases.
  • Polyspecific - intended for substitution treatment of antibody immunodeficiencies.

It is used to induce the so-called booster effect - ie. rapid induction of the immune system after administration of ready-made antibodies.

Disadvantages

The disadvantage is the temporary effect (several days or weeks), especially for heterologous globulins.

Furthermore, the possibility of complications:

• mild - headaches, back pain, palpitations;
• severe - anaphylactic shock, serum sickness.

Therefore, it must be administered in fractions.

Passive immunization is used:

• Preventively - when, for example, a seasonal increase in incidence is approaching, and it may be too late for vaccination.
• Prophylactically - to immunize people at risk of contact with a patient or suspected of being infected.
• For therapy - we give much larger doses.

Passive immunization is necessary, for example, in acute poisoning by certain toxins (snake venoms, bacterial, etc.). The administered antibodies bind to and neutralize the toxin.

Links

Related articles

• Active immunization
• Simultaneous combined immunization
• Specific immunity
• Non-specific immunity
• Antibodies
• Breakdown of vaccination in the Czech Republic
• Regular vaccinations in the Czech Republic

Sources:

• LAW, M a L HANGARTNER. Antibodies against viruses: passive and active immunization. Current Opinion in Immunology. 2008, vol. 20, no. 4, s. 486-492, ISSN 0952-7915. 

• FRENKEL, LD a K NIELSEN. Immunization issues for the 21st century. Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. 2003, vol. 90, no. 6, s. 45-52, ISSN 1081-1206. 

• ŠTERZL, Ivan, et al. Základy imunologie pro zubní a všeobecné lékaře. 1. vydání. Praha : Nakladatelství Karolinum, 2005. 207 s. ISBN 80-246-0972-X.

• SMÍŠEK, J. Imunizace a očkovací látky [online]. ©2008. [cit. 2009-12-02]. <http://mikrobiologie.lf3.cuni.cz/mikrobiologie/teozak/imun/imunizace.pdf>.