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.
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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 (13) |
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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 ...
Researchers demonstrate that stem cells can be engineered to kill HIV
Medicine & Health / HIV & AIDS
11 hours ago |
5 / 5 (7) |
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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) |
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(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 ...
Vaccine being developed to help smokers quit
Medicine & Health / Medications
Nov 20, 2009 |
4.3 / 5 (15) |
10
(PhysOrg.com) -- Glaxo-SmithKline has joined forces with Nabi Pharmaceuticals to produce a vaccine to help smokers give up their addiction permanently.
Nanoparticles for gene therapy improve
Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine
Nov 06, 2009 |
5 / 5 (5) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- About five years ago, Professor Janet Sawicki at the Lankenau Institute in Pennsylvania read an article about nanoparticles developed by MIT's Robert Langer for gene therapy, the insertion ...
Fibre may keep asthma, diabetes at bay, study finds
Oct 28, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (8) |
1
Insoluble dietary fibre, or roughage, not only keeps you regular, say Australian scientists, it also plays a vital role in the immune system, keeping certain diseases at bay.
Study shows how carbon nanotubes can affect lining of the lungs
Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine
Oct 25, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (10) |
1
(PhysOrg.com) -- Carbon nanotubes are being considered for use in everything from sports equipment to medical applications, but a great deal remains unknown about whether these materials cause respiratory ...
Manipulating brain inflammation may help clear brain of amyloid plaques
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Oct 22, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (12) |
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In a surprising reversal of long-standing scientific belief, researchers at the Mayo Clinic campus in Florida have discovered that inflammation in the brain is not the trigger that leads to buildup of amyloid deposits and ...
Study: Cancer may pass from mother to unborn child
Oct 14, 2009 |
5 / 5 (2) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A new study has provided genetic evidence for the first time that it is possible for a mother to transmit cancer to her unborn child via the placenta.
Researchers discover new antituberculosis compounds
Sep 16, 2009 |
4.9 / 5 (7) |
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Attempts to eradicate tuberculosis (TB) are stymied by the fact that the disease-causing bacteria have a sophisticated mechanism for surviving dormant in infected cells. Now, a team of scientists led by researchers from Weill ...
Large-scale study probes how cells fight pathogens
Sep 03, 2009 |
4 / 5 (4) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have deciphered a key molecular circuit that enables the body to distinguish viruses from bacteria and other microbes, providing a deep view of how immune cells in mammals fend ...
Researchers identify new, cancer-causing role for protein
Aug 27, 2009 |
5 / 5 (2) |
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The mainstay immune system protein TRAF6 plays an unexpected, key role activating a cell signaling molecule that in mutant form is associated with cancer growth, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. ...
'Shoot-'em-up' video game increases teenagers' science knowledge
5 hours ago |
4 / 5 (2) |
0
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) |
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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.
