News tagged with immune
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 ...
Apr 03, 2012 |
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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 ...
Apr 13, 2012 |
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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 ...
May 29, 2012 |
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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
7 hours ago |
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Cells on the move
Cells on the move reach forward with lamellipodia and filopodia, cytoplasmic sheets and rods supported by branched networks or tight bundles of actin filaments. Cells without functional lamellipodia are still ...
Apr 09, 2012 |
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Researchers have a natural sidekick that may resolve the antibiotic-resistant bacteria dilemma
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria continue to be a global concern with devastating repercussions, such as increased healthcare costs, potential spread of infections across continents, and prolonged illness.
Apr 25, 2012 |
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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 ...
Mar 26, 2012 |
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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 ...
Apr 23, 2012 |
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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 ...
May 28, 2012 |
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Study uncovers how Salmonella avoids the body's immune response
UC Irvine researchers have discovered how Salmonella, a bacterium found in contaminated raw foods that causes major gastrointestinal distress in humans, thrives in the digestive tract despite the immune system's best effort ...
Mar 14, 2012 |
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Studies reveal how cells distinguish between disease-causing and innocuous invaders
(Phys.org) -- The specific mechanisms by which humans and other animals are able to discriminate between disease-causing microbes and innocuous ones in order to rapidly respond to infections have long been ...
Apr 13, 2012 |
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Researchers discover novel approach to stimulate immune cells
Researchers at Rutgers University have uncovered a new way to stimulate activity of immune cell opiate receptors, leading to efficient tumor cell clearance.
May 11, 2012 |
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What makes a worm say 'yuck'
Researchers at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) say they have uncovered a way that animals detect pathogens in their bodies that allows their systems to respond before cellular damage ...
May 15, 2012 |
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Study maps vaccine for deadly pathogenic fungus
University of Alberta researchers have made breakthrough use of 3-D magnetic resonance technology to map the structure of a common fungus that is potentially deadly for individuals with impaired immune function. The work ...
11 hours ago |
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Sweet success in hunt for honey's healing factor
Comvita, the New Zealand-based global exporter of natural health and beauty products, and collaborators have identified key compounds in honey that stimulate the immune system, paving the way for a range of new wound-healing ...
Mar 29, 2012 |
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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.
