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 |
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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 ...
Scientists reveal malaria parasites' tactics for outwitting our immune systems
Nov 30, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (5) |
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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) |
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(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 ...
Glaxo's swine flu shot may give kids fever
Medicine & Health / Medications
Dec 04, 2009 |
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(AP) -- The European Medicines Agency warns that young children given GlaxoSmithKline's swine flu shot may get a fever after their second dose.
Scientists rescue visual function in rats using induced pluripotent stem cells
Dec 03, 2009 |
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An international team of scientists has rescued visual function in laboratory rats with eye disease by using cells similar to stem cells. The research shows the potential for stem cell-based therapies to treat ...
Good stress response enhances recovery from surgery, study shows
Dec 01, 2009 |
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The right kind of stress response in the operating room could lead to quicker recovery for patients after knee surgery, according to a new study led by Stanford University School of Medicine researchers. The results could ...
Scientists discover genetic pattern that indicates early-stage lung cancer
Dec 01, 2009 |
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Wistar Institute researchers and collaborators from the University of Pennsylvania and New York University have identified immune system markers in the blood which indicate early-stage lung tumors in people at high risk for ...
Study describes new tool in the fight against autoimmune diseases, blood cancers
Nov 30, 2009 |
4 / 5 (1) |
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A study led by a Scripps Research Institute scientist describes a new, highly pragmatic approach to the identification of molecules that prevent a specific type of immune cells from attacking their host. The findings add ...
Pancreatic tumors are marked for immunotherapy
Nov 30, 2009 |
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Pancreatic tumors can be identified by a readily detectable marker that shows promise as a basis for immune therapy against the disease, according to research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
Stroke and heart disease trigger revealed in new research
Nov 30, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have identified the trigger that leads to the arteries becoming damaged in the disease atherosclerosis, which causes heart attacks and strokes, in research published today in the ...
Seeing family for the holidays? Scientists discover how the stress might kill you
Nov 30, 2009 |
5 / 5 (3) |
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If you ever thought the stress of seeing your extended family over the holidays was slowly killing you -- bad news: a new research report in the December 2009 print issue of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology shows that you mi ...
A reductionist approach to HIV research
Medicine & Health / HIV & AIDS
Nov 30, 2009 |
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A major obstacle to HIV research is the virus's exquisite specialisation for its human host - meaning that scientists' traditional tools, like the humble lab mouse, can deliver only limited information. Now, a team of researchers ...
Death-inducing proteins key to complications of bone marrow transplantation
Dec 01, 2009 |
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Treatment for a number of cancers and other medical conditions is transplantation with bone marrow from a genetically nonidentical individual (a process known as allogeneic bone marrow transplantation [allo-BMT]).
Clinical trials launched for treating most aggressive brain tumor with personalized cell vaccines
Nov 30, 2009 |
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The University of Navarra Hospital (Spain) has launched a series of clinical trials in order to assess the efficacy of an immunotherapy treatment. This approach involves the application of personalised vaccines —produced ...
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