Question

Why does the primary adaptive immune response take longer to manifest than the innate immune response? (in details please)

Answer 1

The adaptive immune response is a longlasting, slower-acting, and more specific than the innate response, because the adaptive response requires information from the innate immune system to function.

The B-lymphocytes (or B cells) and T-lymphocytes (or T cells) carry tasks in adaptive immune system and the response of this system is much slower towards threats and infections than the innate immune response, which is primed and ready to fight at all times. These cells of the adaptive immune system respond to pathogens at the later stages of infection and recognize microbial antigens using highly specific receptors that require clonal expansion, gene rearrangement and persist to provide immunological memory.

The one of the main reason for the delayed response of adaptive immune response is that it takes time for naive B cells and T cells with the appropriate antigen specificities to be recognised, activated, and proliferate or multiplication and the immunity occurs only after the exposure to an antigen from a pathogen or a vaccination.

The adaptive immune system is activated when the innate immune response is insufficient to control an infection and therefore, the adaptive response could not be mobilized without information from the innate immune system.