Questions tagged [immune-system]
The group of cellular and molecular processes that the body uses to fight bacterial, viral, and parasitic infections. Autoimmune and inflammatory disease are caused by malfunctioning of this system and should also be tagged with the disease name.
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How much does one night of reduced sleep impair immune function?
I just watched the Sleep is your superpower TED talk by Prof. Matt Walker. In that video, he claims that 1 night of sleeping only 4 hours reduces natural killer cell activity by 70%.
My first ...
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What is the mechanism of immune privilege that prevents immunological damage in some organs?
I was reading about immune privilege in a paper called Immune Privilege of Heart Valves by Hill et al.
Immune privilege is summarised as follows:
Immune privilege is an evolutionary adaptation that ...
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Type of hypoalergenic milk to supplement breastfeeding?
As I am already asking here: Allergy prevention: long duration of breast feeding vs early exposure to allergens - how does that fit together? Isn't this contradictory? I am a quite puzzled by the ...
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Allergy prevention: long duration of breast feeding vs early exposure to allergens - how does that fit together?
So, as a proud father of a two-months old daughter, whose mom has many rather strong allergies and heavy asthma passed down through several generations we'd like to suppress her developing of ...
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How does immunity against HPV work?
Premises:
The HPV vaccine(s) protect against infection with several HPV strains (the number depending on the exact vaccine), but don't cure existing infections.
HPV is not a blood-borne disease, i.e. ...
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Does prior COVID infection increase or decrease mortality on COVID reinfection?
One recent large scale study found that a prior COVID infection doubles your risk of dying when you later catch a subsequent COVID infection.
This study followed 5 million people in the Veterans ...
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The hidden cost of skipping nursery between 1-3 years to avoid "avoidable" infections
Assuming families have the option to provide child care for babies either at home (1-on-1) or at the nursery (in groups of 10-15 babies), which option is a better strategy from the point of view of ...
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Why are the RSS sequences involved in VDJ recombination inverted?
I’m studying the molecular aspect of Antigen Receptor Gene Rearrangement in my introduction to immunology course, and I encountered this statement which got me pretty confused, it says:
“RSS sequences ...
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CAR-T therapy for cardiac sarcoidosis?
Do you know whether CAR-T therapy to replace fibrotic cells in the heart might apply to scarring from cardiac sarcoidosis?
The articles below are from Penn research that shows they are able to replace ...
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What would happen if non-cellular immune responses didn’t happen? [closed]
First things first, I’m not from a medical background, so apologies for the slightly vague question and any other poor wording throughout.
I’ve recently caught a nasty cold, and as such I’ve acquired ...
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Hyposecretion of cortisol lead to depressed immune system?
I understand that cortisol decreases both the number of white blood cells and the secretion of inflammatory chemical from tissues. So shouldn't a under(hypo) secretion of cortisol, lead to an ...
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what is the mechanism through which TLR 7 agonist causes autoimmune disease?
TLR 7 agonist has been linked with development of autoimmune disease, namely lupus like disease. The question is, why does it happen?
I think a mechanism of why it happens would also reveal answers to ...
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What is the mechanism through which TLR 7/8 agonist is useful as an adjuvant in an inactivated vaccine?
My layman understanding is that a Toll like receptor (TLR) is an entity that detects foreign substances in the body and creates an alert about them and an appropriate response ensues. A TLR 7 and 8 ...
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Antibodies and Immune system
I was just educated by my physician about some details of the differences between the qualitative and the semi-quantitative COVID-19 antibody tests. I understand now that the result of the semi-...
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Do facemasks and social distancing weaken the immune system because of reduced exposure to pathogens?
I am operating under the following premises:
The immune system needs to be constantly trained by exposure to pathogens to remain effective.
I remember having read that the reason why little children ...
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What is the current evidence on treating back injury?
I've been researching this topic for a while and found many contradictory results all over the place. I've left the more general "back pain" because I kind of get the same inconclusive ...
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Vaccine death efficacy calculation and how it works
I am no medical expert, am just curious how vaccines work in general, especially in preventing severe illness and deaths. I have read articles, seen videos on youtube, and seen how efficacy is ...
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Can someone have an allergic reaction to a virus?
My understanding of allergies is that they are more or less immune responses to non-pathogenic substances. The definition on MedicineNet more or less agrees with this.
While I don't have any known ...
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Covid vaccine second dose side effects and immunity
Does experiencing side effects such as fever/headache/muscle ache after the second dose of vaccine mean that immune system is weak and catching covid would have been more dangerous in comparison to ...
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Using Pfizer as a booster dose if someone was vaccinated with Sinopharm: what is good practice? [closed]
I am curious if there is established practice of using Pfizer as a booster dose if a person was vaccinated with Sinopharm.
One example I think is here which says it is possible
https://www....
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what is risk of breakthrough infection with pfizer and delta?
There is varying information on this topic, does anybody know is there is any consensus on the rate of breakthrough infections with delta and pfizer vaccine?
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/23/delta-...
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Why is booster shot needed when mRNA vaccines can induce memory cells?
My understanding about mRNA Covid-19 vaccines and memory cell is that they do induce memory T cell response similar to natural infection, and thus provide long term protection via the memory cell ...
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(How) does taking all available vaccines contribute to cross- and trained immunity?
Many countries have national vaccination campaigns that consists of vaccines against several different diseases. I expect that the choice of vaccines that are included in such programs is mainly ...
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Do immune system challenges affect age related immune response decline?
Load bearing exercise is known to help maintain strong bones as we age. Physical exercise prevents muscle atrophy and promotes overall body and organ health. It is also known that cognitive ...
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Is it considered eosinophilia if the total eosinophil count is normal but the eosinophil percentage is high?
If the total eosinophil count is normal but the eosinophil percentage is high, is it considered eosinophilia, or is it merely grounds for a rerun of the test?
In a paper by Kovalski and Weller (2016), ...
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Relationship between Th1 and Th2 and their cross-regulation (+ understanding what cross-regulation means)
Apologies, biology is not my area of expertise but I do have an interest in it.
I "know" that Th1 and Th2 cross-regulate but I'm not sure what that means... Could it mean that if one ...
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Why do we need to get rid of fever, whilst most of medical textbooks say it is a defense reaction of immune system [closed]
Why is paracetamol prescribed in cases of every fever when fever actually helps the body and is in fact induced by the immune system?
Shouldn't it be better to let the immune system do its job?
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Covid-19 incubation period for vaccinated people
1The incubation period for covid-19 can be even something like 14 days. I guess this can be caused by having no specific immunity to this disease, so it takes some time for the immune system to react. ...
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Do covid vaccines increase the risk of antibody-dependent enhancement?
A QAnon video which takes Nobel Prize winner Luc Montagnier's suspect claims about covid vaccination and multiplies them beyond recognition states that mass vaccination will lead to mass ADE, and that ...
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Why do some vaccines cause flu-like symptoms? Why does this seem to be more severe in mRNA vaccines?
Flu like symptoms are noted as possible reactions on nearly every vaccine I've had since adolescence, but I've never actually seen these symptoms in myself or anyone, until now? I don't doubt that ...
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What is the historical or scientific basis for concern about COVID vaccines and pregnant women and their babies?
There's a lot of talk about whether COVID vaccines are safe for pregnant women and their fetuses. Current guidelines, while mentioning that there's little data, suggest that they are safe. However, I'...
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When speaking of vaccine efficacy (for COVID-19, or other), is immune response or efficacy really being measured? [duplicate]
I've been performing many web searches using combinations of the words "vaccine", "vaccination", "COVID-19", "coronavirus", "efficacy", and "...
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Covid-19 and Original Antigenic Sin
My understanding of original antigenic sin, which I admit is minimal, is that with some pathogens, your immune system gets too focused on one variant and thus is wholly unprepared to deal with a ...
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Is there any data on herbal supplements interfering with the efficacy of vaccination?
Here's an excerpt from a paper published in "Journal of Inflammation Research" by Dove Press for a popular and controversial herbal supplement from India:
Coronil effectively inhibited the ...
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Why is it so difficult to develop vaccine for HIV?
I recently learnt that vaccine basically involves making the body ready by informing it the structure of spike protiens the virus has before hand.
Why are we not able to do this for HIV. What's so ...
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Are coronavirus-like spikes only seen in viruses?
Are there any natural proteins or cells (or anything) made by the human body with spikes like those of Covid-19?
I know that there have been no serious side effects reported from the Covid-19 vaccine, ...
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Are many viruses actually good for us?... maybe even essential to our survival?
We know that a very large proportion of bacteria are essential to our good health. Every other day we see press release about the microbiome, and its multitude of health implications. Is there ...
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What protection does T-cell immunity confer for Covid?
This preprint, which was just released today, says that while some of the Covid-19 variants evade antibody immunity, they do not evade T-cell immunity. It says that this is true both of T-cell ...
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Effects of anti-Rh(D) antibodies on the fetus
Rh disease is caused by the irruption in the fetal circulation of anti-Rh(D) antibodies. This only happens when there has been a prior exposure of the mother to Rh+ RBC. To prevent Rh sensitization ...
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How durable is a human immunity to an adenovirus (at least specific serotypes)?
There are few SARS-Cov-2 vaccines that use adenovirus vectors as vehicles (human's Ad5, Ad26, chimps' ChAdOx1, probably something else). A side effect of such a vaccine is that an inoculated organism ...
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How can vaccines be effective against respiratory viruses when it is the innate immune system that is the primary response to such pathogens?
I don't understand how vaccines can be thought to be effective against respiratory viruses. We have influenza "vaccines" and now the new mRNA vaccine against COVID-19. However, my ...
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Will the COVID-19 vaccine grant immunity to other coronaviruses?
As I understand it, the mRNA vaccine teaches the immune system to recognize and attack the spike protein on the surface of the novel coronavirus. Don't all coronaviruses share this same spike protein? ...
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How can a vaccine prevent an individual from getting a disease but not from transmitting it?
In the news about the COVID-19 vaccines which are about to begin distribution, I've seen statements to the effect that "it’s not clear if the shot keeps the disease from being transmitted" (...
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Covid vaccine side effects [closed]
The Pfizer Covid vaccine caused allergic reactions. For patients that are deemed to be at an increased risk of adverse side effects following a risk assessment (e.g. because of diabetes, heart disease)...
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Does Coriander Seed increase or decrease tnf alpha and il-6?
I came across two different papers claiming the opposite thing.
Although there was a dose dependent increase in serum TNF-α levels in the CSHE treated groups as compared to control, the synovial ...
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How often does the adaptive immune system "learn" a new pathogen?
I was arguing with an anti-vaxxer (clearly a favorite pastime) when he made the argument that there are certain risks, like triggering of autoimmune disease, inherent to the process of the adaptive ...
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Given that reinfection is possible with the flu viruses, why didn't the 1918 flu pandemic last forever?
We know that reinfection is possible with the seasonal flu and one could surmise that it was also possible with the 1918 flu strain. But if reinfection is possible and immunity to the flu doesn't last ...
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What makes "chickenpox parties" recommended?
Prior to the availability of the chickenpox vaccine in the mid-90s, I recall the prevailing medical recommendation was to expose children to the virus at "chickenpox parties" with other kids ...
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How can we stop our immune system from producing a particular antibody? [closed]
I have always been fascinated with our immune system and, although it is not my specialization, I have been reading about it lately.
Auto immune diseases are particularly interesting because it seems ...
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Why COVID-19 "immunogenicity may be 70%"?
The USA CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield was recently quoted in the media as saying:
"I might even go so far as to say that this face mask is more guaranteed to protect me against Covid than ...
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