Specific immunity is the body’s learned immune response to foreign pathogens. Lymphocytes create antibodies and memory cells that remember encounters with specific pathogens, allowing the immune system to respond more quickly and accurately to prevent infection. Specific immunity can be acquired naturally or artificially through vaccination.
Specific immunity is the body’s learned immune response to foreign disease-causing substances, also called pathogens or antigens. It is also commonly called acquired immunity or adaptive immunity. When the body first encounters a pathogen, it fights that substance, and the special cells of the immune system remember the pathogen and how best to fight it. The next time the same pathogen is encountered, the immune system already knows what to do and is able to respond much more quickly and accurately, thus preventing infection. Specific immunity can be acquired naturally through exposure to pathogens by natural means or artificially through vaccination.
Typical pathogens that the body will encounter can include a wide range of bacteria and viruses, as well as parasites and other invasive organisms. The first exposure typically causes disease, since the immune system has never had to fight that pathogen before. The immune system will try all possibilities to fight off the invading pathogen, until it finds the most effective method. In this way, the immune system learns how to fight that particular pathogen and thus creates a memory of the pathogen and the best defense against it, acquiring specific immunity for that particular pathogen. The next time the body encounters that pathogen, the immune system will already know exactly how to respond and be able to prevent infection.
When the body acquires specific immunity to a pathogen, highly specialized cells called lymphocytes are responsible for the process. Lymphocytes allow the body to distinguish between its own cells and invading foreign substances. They circulate throughout the body and move to certain areas when needed. Lymphocytes create antibodies, which fight infection by attacking the pathogen in various ways. Lymphocytes create specific antibodies for each pathogen to which the body is exposed.
Additionally, lymphocytes enable the body to remember encounters with specific pathogens, which is crucial for specific immunity. After an encounter, some lymphocytes become memory cells that store information about that encounter until it is needed again. These memory cells can live for decades and will immediately recognize a returning pathogen and launch the appropriate response to prevent infection. That is why a person cannot get sick a second time when exposed to the same pathogen, for example, the chickenpox virus.
When the body is exposed to a pathogen by natural means, such as acquiring the influenza virus by touching an infected surface, specific immunity is acquired naturally. Another way it can be acquired naturally is when antibodies are naturally passed from mother to infant through colostrum, which is the first milk produced by a new mother. Specific immunity can also be acquired by artificial means; the most common example is immunization, where the body is exposed to precise amounts of a pathogen in order to stimulate the immune response and gain immunity without actually getting sick.
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