News tagged with immune system

Honeycomb structure responsible for bacteria's extraordinary sense

(PhysOrg.com) -- Cornell researchers have peered into the complex molecular network of receptors that give one-celled organisms like bacteria the ability to sense their environment and respond to chemical ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Feb 20, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (11) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Sexual healing? Not likely

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new study shows the production of sperm is more biologically taxing than previously thought, and expending energy on it has significant health implications.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Jan 30, 2012 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (11) | comments 8 | with audio podcast

DNA nanorobot triggers targeted therapeutic responses

Researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University have developed a robotic device made from DNA that could potentially seek out specific cell targets within a complex ...

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

created Feb 16, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (9) | comments 8 | with audio podcast

How social contact with sick ants protects their nestmates

In a research article published April 3 in the online, open-access journal PLoS Biology, Prof. Sylvia Cremer and colleagues at the Institute of Science and Technology, Austria show how micro-infections promot ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Apr 03, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (6) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Water, water everywhere – but is it essential to life?

Proteins are large organic molecules that are vital to every living thing, allowing us to convert food into energy, supply oxygen to our blood and muscles, and drive our immune systems. Since proteins evolved in a water-rich ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Apr 13, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (6) | comments 7 | with audio podcast

50-year cholera mystery solved: Answers may help clear the way for a new class of antibiotics

For 50 years scientists have been unsure how the bacteria that gives humans cholera manages to resist one of our basic innate immune responses. That mystery has now been solved, thanks to research from biologists at The University ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created May 29, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Nanotechnology breakthrough could dramatically improve medical tests

A laboratory test used to detect disease and perform biological research could be made more than 3 million times more sensitive, according to researchers who combined standard biological tools with a breakthrough ...

Nanotechnology / Bio & Medicine

created 7 hours ago | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Scientists 'hijack' bacterial immune system

The knowledge that bacteria possess adaptable immune systems that protect them from individual viruses and other foreign invaders is relatively new to science, and researchers across the globe are working to learn how these ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Jan 05, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

A 24-karat gold key to unlock the immune system

Developing a drug or vaccine requires a delicate balancing act with the immune system. On one hand, medications need to escape detection by the immune system in order to perform their function. But vaccinations ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Mar 26, 2012 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 1

New fluorescent biosensor reveals mechanism critical to immune system amplification

Using a new fluorescent biosensor they developed, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have discovered how a key set of immune cells exchange information during their coordinated assault on invading pathogens. The immune ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Apr 23, 2012 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

New study finds titan cells protect Cryptococcus

Giant cells called "titan cells" protect the fungus Cryptococcus neoformans during infection, according to two University of Minnesota researchers. Kirsten Nielsen, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the department of microb ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created May 28, 2012 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

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

Malaria parasite goes bananas before sex: new study

(PhysOrg.com) -- New research from the University of Melbourne shows how the malaria parasite (Plasmodium falciparum) changes into a banana shape before sexual reproduction, a finding that could provide target ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Feb 14, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

New molecule discovered in fight against allergy

Scientists at The University of Nottingham have discovered a new molecule that could offer the hope of new treatments for people allergic to the house dust mite.

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Feb 15, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Vaccines for HIV: A new design strategy

HIV has eluded vaccine-makers for thirty years, in part due to the virus' extreme ability to mutate. Physical scientists and clinical virologists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Ragon Institute ...

Chemistry / Biochemistry

created Feb 23, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Immune system

An immune system is a collection of biological processes within an organism that protects against disease by identifying and killing pathogens and tumour cells. It detects a wide variety of agents, from viruses to parasitic worms, and needs to distinguish them from the organism's own healthy cells and tissues in order to function properly. Detection is complicated as pathogens can evolve rapidly, producing adaptations that avoid the immune system and allow the pathogens to successfully infect their hosts.

To survive this challenge, multiple mechanisms evolved that recognize and neutralize pathogens. Even simple unicellular organisms such as bacteria possess enzyme systems that protect against viral infections. Other basic immune mechanisms evolved in ancient eukaryotes and remain in their modern descendants, such as plants, fish, reptiles, and insects. These mechanisms include antimicrobial peptides called defensins, phagocytosis, and the complement system. Vertebrates such as humans have even more sophisticated defense mechanisms. The immune systems of vertebrates consist of many types of proteins, cells, organs, and tissues, which interact in an elaborate and dynamic network. As part of this more complex immune response, the human immune system adapts over time to recognise specific pathogens more efficiently. This adaptation process is referred to as "adaptive immunity" or "acquired immunity" and creates immunological memory. Immunological memory created from a primary response to a specific pathogen, provides an enhanced response to secondary encounters with that same, specific pathogen. This process of acquired immunity is the basis of vaccination.

Disorders in the immune system can result in disease. Immunodeficiency occurs when the immune system is less active than normal, resulting in recurring and life-threatening infections. Immunodeficiency can either be the result of a genetic disease, such as severe combined immunodeficiency, or be produced by pharmaceuticals or an infection, such as the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) that is caused by the retrovirus HIV. In contrast, autoimmune diseases result from a hyperactive immune system attacking normal tissues as if they were foreign organisms. Common autoimmune diseases include Hashimoto's Thyroiditis, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes mellitus type 1 and lupus erythematosus. Immunology covers the study of all aspects of the immune system which has significant relevance to human health and diseases. Further investigation in this field is expected to play a serious role in promotion of health and treatment of diseases.

For more information about Immune system, read the full article at Wikipedia.
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