Immunosuppression involves an act that reduces the activation or efficacy In a healthcare context, efficacy indicates the capacity for beneficial change of a given intervention (e.g. a medicine, medical device, surgical procedure, or a public health intervention) of the immune system An immune system is a system of biological structures and processes within an organism that protects against disease by identifying and killing pathogens and tumor 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. Some portions of the immune system itself have immuno-suppressive effects on other parts of the immune system, and immunosuppression may occur as an adverse reaction to treatment of other conditions. Deliberately induced immunosuppression is generally done to prevent the body from rejecting Transplant rejection occurs when a transplanted organ or tissue is not accepted by the body of the transplant recipient. This is explained by the concept that the immune system of the recipient attacks the transplanted organ or tissue. This is expected to happen, because the immune system's purpose is to distinguish foreign material within the an organ transplant Organ transplantation is the moving of a organ from one body to another, or from a donor site on the patient's own body, for the purpose of replacing the recipient's damaged or absent organ. The emerging field of Regenerative medicine is allowing scientists and engineers to create organs to be re-grown from the patient's own cells Organs and/or, treating graft-versus-host disease Graft-versus-host disease is a common complication of allogeneic bone marrow transplantation in which functional immune cells in the transplanted marrow recognize the recipient as "foreign" and mount an immunologic attack. It can also take place in a blood transfusion under certain circumstances after a bone marrow transplant Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is the transplantation of blood stem cells derived from the bone marrow (in this case known as bone marrow transplantation) or blood. Stem cell transplantation is a medical procedure in the fields of hematology and oncology, most often performed for people with diseases of the blood, bone marrow, or certain, or for the treatment of auto-immune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic, systemic inflammatory disorder that may affect many tissues and organs, but principally attacks synovial joints. The process produces an inflammatory response of the synovium (synovitis) secondary to hyperplasia of synovial cells, excess synovial fluid, and the development of pannus in the synovium. The pathology or Crohn's disease Crohn's disease is an inflammatory disease of the intestines that may affect any part of the gastrointestinal tract from mouth to anus, causing a wide variety of symptoms. It primarily causes abdominal pain, diarrhea (which may be bloody), vomiting, or weight loss, but may also cause complications outside of the gastrointestinal tract such as skin. This is typically done using drugs, but may involve surgery (splenectomy), plasmapharesis, or radiation.
A person who is undergoing immunosuppression, or whose immune system is weak for other reasons (for example, chemotherapy Chemotherapy, in its most general sense, is the treatment of a disease by chemicals especially by killing micro-organisms or cancerous cells. In popular usage, it refers to antineoplastic drugs used to treat cancer or the combination of these drugs into a cytotoxic standardized treatment regimen. In its non-oncological use, the term may also refer, HIV Human immunodeficiency virus is a lentivirus (a member of the retrovirus family) that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in humans in which the immune system begins to fail, leading to life-threatening opportunistic infections. Infection with HIV occurs by the transfer of blood, semen, vaginal fluid, pre-ejaculate, or, and Lupus Systemic lupus erythematosus (pronounced /sɨˈstɛmɨk ˈluːpəs ˌɛrɨˌθiːməˈtoʊsəs/ , often abbreviated to SLE or lupus, is a chronic autoimmune connective tissue disease that can affect any part of the body. As occurs in other autoimmune diseases, the immune system attacks the body’s cells and tissue, resulting in inflammation and) is said to be immunocompromised. When an organ In biology and anatomy, an organ is a collection of tissues joined in structural unit to serve a common function is transplanted, the immune system of the recipient will most likely recognize it as foreign tissue and attack it. The destruction of the organ will, if untreated, end in the death of the recipient.
Deliberately induced
In the past, radiation therapy Radiation therapy , or radiotherapy (in the UK and Australia) also called radiation oncology, and sometimes abbreviated to XRT, is the medical use of ionizing radiation as part of cancer treatment to control malignant cells (not to be confused with radiology, the use of radiation in medical imaging and diagnosis). Radiotherapy may be used for was used to decrease the strength of the immune system, but now immunosuppressant drugs Immunosuppressive drugs or immunosuppressive agents are drugs that inhibit or prevent activity of the immune system. They are used in immunosuppressive therapy to: are used to inhibit the reaction of the immune system. The downside is that with such a deactivated immune system, the body is very vulnerable to opportunistic infections An opportunistic infection is an infection caused by pathogens that usually do not cause disease in a healthy host, i.e. one with a healthy immune system. A compromised immune system, however, presents an "opportunity" for the pathogen to infect, even those usually considered harmless. Also, prolonged use of immunosuppressants increases the risk of cancer Cancer /ˈkænsər/ (medical term: malignant neoplasm) is a class of diseases in which a group of cells display uncontrolled growth (division beyond the normal limits), invasion (intrusion on and destruction of adjacent tissues), and sometimes metastasis (spread to other locations in the body via lymph or blood). These three malignant properties.
Cortisone Cortisone (pronounced /ˈkɔrtɨsoʊn/ or /ˈkɔrtɨzoʊn/ ) (17-hydroxy-11-dehydrocorticosterone) is a steroid hormone. In chemical structure, it is a corticosteroid closely related to corticosterone. It is used to treat a variety of ailments and can be administered intravenously, orally, intraarticularly, or cutaneously. Cortisone suppresses the was the first immunosuppressant identified, but its wide range of side effects limited its use. The more specific azathioprine Azathioprine is used in organ transplantation and autoimmune disease. Some of the autoimmune diseases are rheumatoid arthritis, pemphigus, Inflammatory Bowel Disease , multiple sclerosis, autoimmune hepatitis, atopic dermatitis, Myasthenia Gravis and restrictive lung disease was identified in 1959, but it was the discovery of cyclosporine Ciclosporin , cyclosporine (USAN), cyclosporin (former BAN) or cyclosporin A, is an immunosuppressant drug widely used in post-allogeneic organ transplant to reduce the activity of the patient's immune system, and therefore the risk of organ rejection. It has been studied in transplants of skin, heart, kidney, liver, lung, pancreas, bone marrow, in 1970 that allowed for significant expansion of kidney transplantation Kidney transplantation or renal transplantation is the organ transplant of a kidney into a patient with end-stage renal disease. Kidney transplantation is typically classified as deceased-donor or living-donor transplantation depending on the source of the donor organ. Living-donor renal transplants are further characterized as genetically related to less well-matched donor-recipient pairs as well as broad application of liver transplantation Liver transplantation or hepatic transplantation is the replacement of a diseased liver with a healthy liver allograft. The most commonly used technique is orthotopic transplantation, in which the native liver is removed and the donor organ is placed in the same anatomic location as the original liver. Liver transplantation nowadays is a well, lung transplantation Lung transplantation is a surgical procedure in which a patient's diseased lungs are partially or totally replaced by lungs which come from a donor. While lung transplants carry certain associated risks, they can also extend life expectancy and enhance the quality of life for end-stage pulmonary patients, pancreas transplantation A pancreas transplant is an organ transplant that involves implanting a healthy pancreas into a person who usually has diabetes. Because the pancreas is a vital organ, performing functions necessary in the digestion process, the recipient's native pancreas is left in place, and the donated pancreas is attached in a different location. In the event, and heart transplantation Heart transplantation, or cardiac transplantation, is a surgical transplant procedure performed on patients with end-stage heart failure or severe coronary artery disease. The most common procedure is to take a working heart from a recently deceased organ donor and implant it into the patient. The patient's own heart may either be removed (.
Dr. Joseph Murray Joseph Edward Murray is a retired American plastic surgeon. He performed the first successful human kidney transplant from an adult to his identical twin in 1954 of Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School is one of the graduate schools of Harvard University. It is currently ranked first among American research medical schools by U.S. News and World Report and chief plastic surgeon at Children's Hospital Boston Children's Hospital Boston is a children's hospital located in the Longwood Medical and Academic Area of Boston, Massachusetts from 1972-1985 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded once a year by the Swedish Karolinska Institute. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, awarded for outstanding contributions in Physics, Chemistry, Literature, Peace, and Physiology or Medicine since 1901. The first Nobel Prize in Physiology or in 1990 for his work on immunosuppression. Dr. Murray and his team are credited with the first successful human kidney transplant at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital Brigham and Women's Hospital is the largest hospital of Longwood Medical and Academic Area, Boston, Massachusetts and is directly adjacent to Harvard Medical School of which it is the second largest teaching affiliate. With Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School's largest teaching affiliate, it is one of the two founding members of, Boston on 23 December 1954.
Pathogenic
Further information: Immunodeficiency Immunodeficiency is a state in which the immune system's ability to fight infectious disease is compromised or entirely absent. Most cases of immunodeficiency are acquired ("secondary") but some people are born with defects in the immune system, or primary immunodeficiency. Transplant patients take medications to suppress their immuneImmunosuppression is a common aim of many bacterial virulence factors.
See also
Categories: Immune system The immune system refers to all of the cells, tissues, organs and processes that protect an organism from invasion by pathogens. Viruses, bacteria, parasites, and some toxins are some of pathogens that the immune system is involved in eliminating from the body | Immunology