Related topics: swine flu , vaccine
Immunity (medical)
hideImmunity 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
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News tagged with immune
Researchers Build Artificial Immune System to Solve Computational Problems
Technology / Computer Sciences
Dec 03, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (14) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- By mimicking the way that a living body acquires immunity to disease through vaccination, researchers have designed an artificial immune system to solve optimization problems more effectively ...
Mechanism discovered by which body's cells encourage tuberculosis infection
Dec 10, 2009 |
4 / 5 (1) |
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Scientists have discovered a signaling pathway that tuberculosis bacteria use to coerce disease-fighting cells to switch allegiance and work on their behalf. Epithelial cells line the airways and other surfaces ...
Study reveals H1N1 unexpected weakness
Dec 10, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (19) |
7
The H1N1 influenza virus has been keeping a secret that may be the key to defeating it and other flu viruses as well.
Researchers demonstrate that stem cells can be engineered to kill HIV
Medicine & Health / HIV & AIDS
Dec 08, 2009 |
4.9 / 5 (18) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- UCLA AIDS Institute researchers have for the first time demonstrated that human blood stem cells can be engineered to target and kill HIV-infected cells.
Implant-based cancer vaccine is first to eliminate tumors in mice
Nov 25, 2009 |
4.7 / 5 (31) |
7
(PhysOrg.com) -- A cancer vaccine carried into the body on a carefully engineered, fingernail-sized implant is the first to successfully eliminate tumors in mammals, scientists report this week in the journal ...
Novel nanotechnology heals abscesses caused by resistant staph bacteria
Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine
Dec 22, 2009 |
5 / 5 (2) |
0
Researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have developed a new approach for treating and healing skin abscesses caused by bacteria resistant to most antibiotics. The study ...
Enzyme necessary for development of healthy immune system
Dec 22, 2009 |
not rated yet |
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Mice without the deoxycytidine kinase (dCK) enzyme have defects in their adaptive immune system, producing very low levels of both T and B lymphocytes, the major players involved in immune response, according to a study by ...
IBM Reveals Five Innovations that Will Change Cities in the Next Five Years (w/ Video)
Dec 17, 2009 |
3.4 / 5 (9) |
1
Today, IBM unveiled a list of innovations that have the potential to change how people live, work and play in cities around the globe over the next five to ten years.
Biological catch-22 prevents induction of antibodies that block HIV
Medicine & Health / HIV & AIDS
Dec 15, 2009 |
4.5 / 5 (2) |
2
Scientists seeking to understand how to make an AIDS vaccine have found the cause of a major roadblock. It turns out that the immune system can indeed produce cells with the potential to manufacture powerful HIV-blocking ...
A new target for lymphoma therapy
Dec 09, 2009 |
not rated yet |
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Researchers at the Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine and the Immune Disease Institute at Children's Hospital Boston (PCMM/IDI) have found a link between a common mutation that can lead to cancer and ...
'Shoot-'em-up' video game increases teenagers' science knowledge
Dec 08, 2009 |
4.3 / 5 (7) |
2
While navigating the microscopic world of immune system proteins and cells to save a patient suffering from a raging bacterial infection, young teenage players of the "Immune Attack" video game measurably improved their understanding ...
Scientists reveal malaria parasites' tactics for outwitting our immune systems
Nov 30, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (6) |
1
Malaria parasites are able to disguise themselves to avoid the host's immune system, according to research funded by the Wellcome Trust and published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of ...
Researchers discover biological basis of 'bacterial immune system'
Nov 30, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (4) |
1
(PhysOrg.com) -- Bacteria don’t have easy lives. In addition to mammalian immune systems that besiege the bugs, they have natural enemies called bacteriophages, viruses that kill half the bacteria on Earth every two days.
It takes two to infect: Structural biologists shed light on mechanism of invasion protein
Nov 30, 2009 |
5 / 5 (1) |
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Bacteria are quite creative when infecting the human organism. They invade cells, migrate through the body, avoid an immune response and misuse processes of the host cell for their own purposes. To this end every bacterium ...
Researchers discover biological basis of 'bacterial immune system'
Nov 25, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (4) |
0
Bacteria don't have easy lives. In addition to mammalian immune systems that besiege the bugs, they have natural enemies called bacteriophages, viruses that kill half the bacteria on Earth every two days.
