Kuby Immunology

Citation

Punt, J., Stranford, S. A., Jones, P. P., & Owen, J. A. (2018). Kuby Immunology (8th ed.). W. H. Freeman, Macmillan Learning.

Chapter Summary

The book has 20 chapters and about 700 pages. Its publisher describes the eighth edition as keeping the book's "hallmark experimental presentation" of current research while adding content to help students see the big picture, and says the authors streamlined the coverage chapter by chapter, addressed the topics students find hardest, and reminded readers throughout where each topic fits in immunology as a whole. The chapter titles below are the publisher's.

Chapters 1–3: Overview of the Immune System; Cells, Organs, and Microenvironments of the Immune System; Recognition and Response

The opening chapters give an overview of the immune system, the cells and organs in which immune responses take place, and the general logic of recognition and response that the rest of the book develops.

Chapters 4–5: Innate Immunity; The Complement System

Two chapters on the first line of defence, with the complement system given its own chapter.

Chapters 6–7: The Organization and Expression of Lymphocyte Receptor Genes; The Major Histocompatibility Complex and Antigen Presentation

The molecular basis of antigen recognition: how the genes for lymphocyte receptors are organized and expressed, and how the major histocompatibility complex presents antigen.

Chapters 8–9: T-Cell Development; B-Cell Development

Parallel chapters on how T cells and B cells develop.

Chapters 10–12: T-Cell Activation, Differentiation, and Memory; B-Cell Activation, Differentiation, and Memory; Effector Responses: Cell- and Antibody-Mediated Immunity

Parallel chapters on T-cell and B-cell activation, differentiation and memory, followed by a chapter on effector responses by cells and antibodies.

Chapters 13–14: The Barrier Immunity: Immunology of Mucosa and Skin; The Adaptive Immune Response in Time and Space

Chapter 13 covers immunity at barrier surfaces; in the COVID-19 Digital Update it includes a section on the immune system of the respiratory tract. Chapter 14 considers the adaptive response over time and across the body. Both chapters use SARS-CoV-2 as an example of the response to a viral infection in that update.

Chapters 15–16: Allergy, Hypersensitivities, and Chronic Inflammation; Tolerance, Autoimmunity, and Transplantation

Chapters on immune responses that cause harm, on tolerance and its failure, and on transplantation.

Chapters 17–18: Infectious Disease and Public Health; Immunization and Vaccines

In the digital update, Chapter 17 discusses patterns of infection, reservoirs, modes of transmission, portals of entry, emerging and reemerging diseases, zoonotic infections and public-health measures. Chapter 18 covers vaccine formulations, designs and additives, and the stages of vaccine development, testing and approval.

Chapters 19–20: Immunodeficiency Disorders; Cancer and the Immune System

The book closes with failures of immunity and with the immune response to cancer.

Key Concepts

Chapters 1–7: Innate immunity and antigen recognition

• Innate immunity and the complement system: Chapters 4 and 5.
• Lymphocyte receptor genes: their organization and expression (Chapter 6).
• Major histocompatibility complex and antigen presentation: Chapter 7.

Chapters 8–14: Lymphocytes and responses

• T-cell and B-cell development: Chapters 8 and 9.
• Activation, differentiation and memory: Chapters 10 and 11.
• Effector responses: Chapter 12.
• Barrier immunity: Chapter 13.

Chapters 15–20: Immunity in health and disease

• Hypersensitivity, tolerance, autoimmunity and transplantation: Chapters 15 and 16.
• Immunization and vaccines: Chapter 18.
• Immunodeficiency and cancer immunology: Chapters 19 and 20.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Experimental emphasis. The publisher stresses the book's experimental presentation of current research, carried forward from Janis Kuby's original text, and says it conveys the excitement of discovery while keeping the focus on the big picture.
• Authors who teach the course. The publisher presents it as an undergraduate immunology text written by teachers of the course, and the authors' biographies list teaching at colleges and universities including Haverford, Pomona and Stanford.
• Parallel structure. The chapters on T-cell and B-cell development (8–9) and on activation and memory (10–11) are paired, so readers can compare the two arms of adaptive immunity directly.
• Responsive to public-health topics. In the COVID-19 Digital Update the publisher describes Chapters 17 (infectious disease and public health) and 18 (immunization and vaccines) as new and Chapter 13 as revised, with five new feature boxes on pandemic topics in the series named Clinical Focus, Evolution and Advances.

Limitations

• Length. At 20 chapters and roughly 700 pages the book is more than a single course can absorb, so instructors and readers must choose.
• Molecular detail comes early. The organization of lymphocyte receptor genes (Chapter 6) and the major histocompatibility complex (Chapter 7) come before the development chapters, so readers need molecular genetics and cell biology to follow the middle of the book.
• Versions differ. The publisher now lists the eighth edition as the "Covid-19 & Digital Update" (copyright 2023), with revised and new content and new feature boxes relative to the earlier printing; check which version a course or library copy is.

Where It Fits in the Course

Kuby is an undergraduate textbook with an experimental emphasis. Parham's The Immune System is more concise and focused on the human immune system, which makes it the shorter alternative if the course is oriented toward health and disease; Coico's Immunology: A Short Course is a concise one-semester text with clinical cases and review questions. Both can come before Kuby or substitute for it when time is short. Klenerman's The Immune System: A Very Short Introduction needs no cell biology or medicine and is a quick orientation.

Janeway's Immunobiology is the detailed, advanced treatment for readers who want to go beyond Kuby's coverage, aimed at advanced undergraduates, graduate students and medical students. Paul's Fundamental Immunology is a multi-author reference work in which specialists review the molecular and cellular basis of immunity; it is best used as a reference after a full course.

How to Use This Book

The book assumes cell biology and some biochemistry or genetics. A practical plan:

• Core: Chapters 1–5 for the framework and innate immunity, Chapters 6–7 for recognition, Chapters 8–12 for the lymphocyte life cycle and effector responses.
• Application chapters: Chapters 15–16 and 19–20 for immune disorders, transplantation, immunodeficiency and cancer; Chapters 17–18 for infection, public health and vaccines.
• Optional: Chapters 13–14 for barrier immunity and for how responses unfold in the body, which a course may place after the cellular chapters.

Read the Chapter 1 overview twice, once before and once after finishing Chapter 12, so the later detail lands in a framework. When a chapter presents an experiment, state the question, the result and the conclusion in your own words before reading on.