Bubba, a 48 years old man, previously immunized successfully against hepatitis B

Question

Bubba, a 48 years old man, previously immunized successfully against hepatitis B in his late teens when he worked at a local blood donation center needed an anamnestic response because of his new job at a local hospital. This time Bubba was found incapable of mounting an appreciable response against the vaccine; he made very little antibodies at levels that were not protective. So he could not be hired by the hospital.

Your investigation reveals that as a young college student, Bubba was one of the most powerful kickers on the Golden Ram football team. He also confided in you that as a player, he had discovered that hallucinogenic mushrooms were a fun thing to do; a practice that has become habitual with him to this day. .

You discover that the type of mushroom he does contains an alkaloid which is cross reactive with the hepatitis B virus major coat antigen. This antigen induces the formation of the most critical neutralizing antibodies against the virus.

The alkaloid forms long aggregates and a precipitate in even small amount of ethanol and it is a potent inhibitor of protein synthesis in cells.

In light of this information, and your knowledge of antigen and immune responses, explain the nature of Bubba's newly acquired unresponsiveness to hepatitis vaccine.

Explanation / Answer

Bubba is habitual to the alkaloid. The alkaloid enters blood route of Bubba and combines with the vaccinated antigens. So, antigens are neutralized by the alkaloid before they could evoke the T-helper cells to activate B-cells for the formation of antibodies.

So, now the response shown by this person is unresponsive to Hepatitis vaccine. This person’s body may become re-responsive to the vaccine, if he is relieved of drug/alkaloid addiction in the near future.

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