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Deadly bird parasite evolves at exceptionally fast rate

A new study of a devastating bird disease that spread from poultry to house finches in the mid-1990s reveals that the bacteria responsible for the disease evolves at an exceptionally fast rate. What's more, ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Feb 09, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Cell death unleashes full force of human antiviral system

A scientific team led by researchers at the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and the Charite Berlin Medical University has made a completely unprecedented discovery showing how much our immune system is provoked into action when ...

Medicine & Health / Research

created Feb 09, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Secrets of immune response illuminated in new study

When disease-causing invaders like bacteria infect a human host, cells of various types swing into action, coordinating their activities to address the threat.

Medicine & Health / Research

created Feb 09, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Gene therapy for inherited blindness succeeds in patients' other eye

Gene therapy for congenital blindness has taken another step forward, as researchers further improved vision in three adult patients previously treated in one eye. After receiving the same treatment in their ...

Medicine & Health / Research

created Feb 08, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Using the body's own immune system in the fight against cancer

DNA sequences from tumor cells can be used to direct the immune system to attack cancer, according to scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Medicine & Health / Research

created Feb 08, 2012 | popularity 3 / 5 (2) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Growing up on a farm directly affects regulation of the immune system

Immunological diseases, such as eczema and asthma, are on the increase in westernised society and represent a major challenge for 21st century medicine. A new study has shown, for the first time, that growing up on a farm ...

Medicine & Health / Research

created Feb 08, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 1

Pneumonia wonder drug: Zinc saves lives

Respiratory tract infections, including pneumonia, are the most common cause of death in children under the age of five. In a study looking at children given standard antibiotic therapy, new research published in BioMed Central's ...

Medicine & Health / Diseases

created Feb 08, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Administration of meningococcal vaccine with other routine infant vaccines appears effective

Administration of routine infant immunizations with a vaccine for serogroup B Neisseria meningitidis, a bacterium that is a cause of serious disease such as sepsis and meningitis, was effective against meningococcal strains ...

Medicine & Health / Diseases

created Feb 07, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Under the Microscope #6 -- Killer T-cells

In this video we see a killer T-cell of the immune system attacking a cancer cell.

Medicine & Health / Research

created Feb 07, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Why bad immunity genes survive: Study implicates arms race between genes and germs

University of Utah biologists found new evidence why mice, people and other vertebrate animals carry thousands of varieties of genes to make immune-system proteins named MHCs – even though some of those ...

Medicine & Health / Research

created Feb 06, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

How autoreactive T cells slip through the cracks

Immune cells capable of attacking healthy organs "see" their targets differently than do protective immune cells that attack viruses, according to work published online this week in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.

Medicine & Health / Research

created Feb 06, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Low levels of lipid antibodies increase complications following heart attack

Coronary patients with low levels of an immune system antibody called anti-PC, which neutralises parts of the "bad" cholesterol, run a greater risk of suffering complications following an acute cardiac episode and thus of ...

Medicine & Health / Cardiology

created Feb 06, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Researchers discover key to immune cell's 'internal guidance' system

University of British Columbia researchers have discovered the molecular pathway that enables receptors inside immune cells to find, and flag, fragments of pathogens trying to invade a host.

Medicine & Health / Research

created Feb 05, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

US recommends routine HPV vaccination for boys

US health authorities on Friday urged all boys age 11-12 to get a routine vaccination against the most common sexually transmitted disease, human papillomavirus, or HPV.

Medicine & Health / Health

created Feb 03, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

'Gatekeeper' protein helps immune cells to sound a warning after encountering signs of tumor growth or infection

When the body’s own cells turn into ticking time bombs, as in cases of viral infection or cancerous transformation, a mechanism known as ‘cross-presentation’ enables the immune system’s ...

Medicine & Health / Research

created Feb 03, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Immunity (medical)

Immunity is a biological term that describes a state of having sufficient biological defenses to avoid infection, disease, or other unwanted biological invasion. Immunity involves both specific and non-specific components. The non-specific components act either as barriers or as eliminators of wide range of pathogens irrespective of antigenic specificity. Other components of the immune system adapt themselves to each new disease encountered and are able to generate pathogen-specific immunity.

Adaptive immunity is often sub-divided into two major types depending on how the immunity was introduced. Naturally acquired immunity occurs through contact with a disease causing agent, when the contact was not deliberate, whereas artificially acquired immunity develops only through deliberate actions such as vaccination. Both naturally and artificially acquired immunity can be further subdivided depending on whether immunity is induced in the host or passively transferred from a immune host. Passive immunity is acquired through transfer of antibodies or activated T-cells from an immune host, and is short lived, usually lasts only a few months, whereas active immunity is induced in the host itself by antigen, and lasts much longer, sometimes life-long. The diagram below summarizes these divisions of immunity.

For more information about Immunity (medical), read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Related topics: swine flu , vaccine