Immunosuppression is a reduction of the activation or efficacy of the immune system. Some portions of the immune system itself have immunosuppressive effects on other parts of the immune system, and immunosuppression may occur as an adverse reaction to treatment of other conditions.
In general, deliberately induced immunosuppression is performed to prevent the body from rejecting an organ transplant. Additionally, it is used for treating graft-versus-host disease after a bone marrow transplant, or for the treatment of auto-immune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, Sjögren's syndrome, or Crohn's disease. This is typically done using medications, but may involve surgery (splenectomy), plasmapheresis, or radiation. A person who is undergoing immunosuppression, or whose immune system is weak for some other reasons (such as chemotherapy or HIV), is said to be immunocompromised.
Administration of immunosuppressive medications or immunosuppressants is the main method for deliberately inducing immunosuppression; in optimal circumstances, immunosuppressive drugs primarily target hyperactive components of the immune system. People in remission from cancer who require immunosuppression are not more likely to experience a recurrence. Throughout its history, radiation therapy has been used to decrease the strength of the immune system. Dr. Joseph Murray of Brigham and Women's Hospital was given the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1990 for work on immunosuppression.
Immunosuppressive drugs have the potential to cause immunodeficiency, which can increase susceptibility to opportunistic infection and decrease cancer immunosurveillance. Immunosuppressants may be prescribed when a normal immune response is undesirable, such as in autoimmune diseases.
Steroids were the first class of immunosuppressant drugs identified, though side-effects of early compounds limited their use.
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The course covers in detail the interactions of cancer cells with their environment with an emphasis on tumor-angiogenesis, inflammation, adaptive and innate immunity and cancer-induced immune suppres
Immunoengineering is an emerging field where engineering principles are grounded in immunology. This course provides students a broad overview of how engineering approaches can be utilized to study im
Immunosuppressive drugs, also known as immunosuppressive agents, immunosuppressants and antirejection medications, are drugs that inhibit or prevent the activity of the immune system. Immunosuppressive drugs can be classified into five groups: glucocorticoids cytostatics antibodies drugs acting on immunophilins other drugs Glucocorticoid In pharmacologic (supraphysiologic) doses, glucocorticoids, such as prednisone, dexamethasone, and hydrocortisone are used to suppress various allergic, inflammatory, and autoimmune disorders.
Lupus, technically known as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), is an autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system mistakenly attacks healthy tissue in many parts of the body. Symptoms vary among people and may be mild to severe. Common symptoms include painful and swollen joints, fever, chest pain, hair loss, mouth ulcers, swollen lymph nodes, feeling tired, and a red rash which is most commonly on the face. Often there are periods of illness, called flares, and periods of remission during which there are few symptoms.
White blood cells, also called leukocytes or leucocytes, are cells of the immune system that are involved in protecting the body against both infectious disease and foreign invaders. White blood cells include three main subtypes; granulocytes, lymphocytes and monocytes. White cells is most preferred rather than the, white blood cells, because, they spend most of their time in the lymph or plasma. All white blood cells are produced and derived from multipotent cells in the bone marrow known as hematopoietic stem cells.
Author summary Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) infection is the foremost viral cause of congenital birth defects. Attempts to vaccinate against HCMV brought moderate, though not sufficient, reduction in infection. Moreover, phase II clinical trial with gB for ...
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