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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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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Varicella vaccine UK, benefits vs risk
first question on medicine stackexchange so apologies if formatting isn't right.
My specific questions are
If vaccinated <5 years old, is the vaccine still likely to be protective at childbearing ...
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How is it possible for someone to suffer repeated bouts of flu?
About a month and a half ago I caught flu... recovered fairly quickly (2 days), and then 1 week later I caught another one, again, recovered even faster (just 1 day, a good night sleep) and a week ago ...
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Tetanus antibodies
I received a tetanus vaccination less than 10 years ago when I was in the military. I recently started donating plasma and donation center gave me another tetanus shot to boost the tetanus antibodies ...
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Does stimulating lymph flow speed up adaptive immune response?
TL;DR it seems that one mayor factor slowing down the adaptive immune response is the slowness with which Dendritic cells travel through the lymphatic system. Is it effective for to purposefully ...
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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 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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Can IVIG treatment increase risk of infections?
Intravenous Immunoglobulins (IVIG) are often used to treat patients with impaired antibody production or autoimmune conditions[1]. However, according to this paper[2], it can also inhibit antibody ...
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Is inoculation against covid-19 an option?
Covid-19 can cause serious illness or death, and it can take survivors a very long time to recover, and even then it is unsure if recovery will be complete.
The policies put in place to curb the ...
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Can SARS-CoV-2 possibly overcome herd immunity without mutation in densely populated countries and places? [closed]
Can the coronavirus that causes covid-19 possibly overcome herd immunity without mutation using immune individuals as hubs till it reaches vulnerable individuals in very densely populated countries ...
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How does lifetime immunity work?
Why do we get a lifetime immunity against particular diseases like smallpox ?
Why don't we get immunity against all diseases we have already been through ?
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Is this explanation of coronavirus accurate?
I have seen the following post popping up on Facebook recently:
🧐🧐🧐
Feeling confused as to why Coronavirus is a bigger deal than Seasonal
flu? Here it is in a nutshell. I hope this ...
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What's the primary body entrance + surface of infection for catching the flu?
I realize there are multiple ways, but if you tallied up all the people who caught the flu or a cold last year, what would be the majority...
Entrance for infection:
Mouth
Nose
Eyes
Ears
Skin
Bio ...
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Would strenuous exercise make one more susceptible to ringworm?
A recent study debunks the generally-held belief that strenuous exercise suppresses the immunity system. Instead, immunity cells are said to migrate to internal organs that need them most after ...
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Cancer treatment through regulation of myeloid-derived suppressor cells
There are many ongoing clinical trials that leverage the power of the immune system to recognize tumor cells such as CD47 and PDL1/PD1, and even engineered T cells!
I ran across an immune cell type ...
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Will treating minor infections with medication slow down or prevent anti body generation?
My 2 yo son gets sick fairly often, as expected for his age. Since his immune system has yet to build antibodies against all the usual infections. I wonder if medicating minor infections is doing more ...
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Does being overly attentive to hygiene impair your immune system?
Like a lot of Japanese girls, I'm a bit obsessed with personal hygiene. Sometimes I get up 2AM to have a shower... after already having one before going to sleep, because something just doesn't feel "...
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Can amphetamines suppress reactivity to scratch testing (for immunotherapy)?
My understanding's that amphetamines are immunosuppressive... Theoretically, couldn't these drugs result in false negatives?
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Immune system & methylphenidate?
How and to what extent does methylphenidate impact immune system function? How does its impact compare to that of amphetamines?
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Does the saliva of a person just recovered from an infectious disease help to cure another persons having the same disease?
I have always had this 'weird' thought (But could never quite test it...). Would the saliva contain antibodies, or other immuno-boosting substances that can help fight off the same pathogen in another ...
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How can an oral antigen help meniere's syndrome?
Can giving a sublingual antigen to a virus (e.g. herpes) whilst concomitantly giving antiviral drugs help with meniere's syndrome? The aim being to encourage the Mucosal Associated Lymphoid Tissue (...
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What is the average recovery time for cold and catarrh
I've been having cold and catarrh for the past one week. I don't want to disturb my parents about medicines, so I drink lots of water everyday, but doesn't seem to have any improvement.
Q1: What is ...
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Immunity after a GI bug
Common wisdom is that once you've been infected with a cold virus, you are then immune to that specific virus. Obviously there are hundreds of cold viruses, so you can keep getting colds.
Does the ...
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Can an infection with toxoplasma gondii be cured with the current medical state of the art?
According to the CDC, toxoplasma gondii is purported to be present in approximately 22.5% of those in the US above the age of 12, and is present in some populations worldwide at an incidence rate of ...
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no medication treatments for MS
What are the no-medication treatments for Multiple sclerosis (MS) ?
Based on many papers, sport and meditation can help to keep the immune system and the body healthier which leads to a higher level ...
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Tonsillitis and tonsillectomy confusion
I have read the article here, and I am confused on why the tonsils have to be removed.
Are tonsils removed when they themselves incur frequent/prolonged infection? The source I stated above does not ...
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APC cells - autoreactivity [closed]
How can APC cells become autoreactiv against own antigens if they only have PRR as recognition complexes - and are not under central/peripheral immune tolerance?
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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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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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Do antihistamines slow down the healing process of a bite/wound?
Taking antihistamines is common for relieving the itch sensation from a mosquito bite. This itching sensation is one of the side effects of histamine, which is produced as part of the immunological ...
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What is Immunotherapy for cancers?
I have heard a lot about immunotherapy in the last 2 years. It is not used in many countries and is still under testing.
What is immunotherapy? (I need a simple explanation, I am not a doctor)
How ...
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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 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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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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If COVID-19 binds to GRP78 could a GRP78 dose inactivate the virus?
This research found that the COVID-19 spike protein binds to the cell surface receptor GRP78.
If we could inject a large amount of GRP78 into patients could it saturate the virus particles, and ...
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Is it possible to immunize against bacteria?
In anticipation of going to a region with known prevalence of flesh eating bacteria, can an individual take antibiotics prior to going to prevent it from being contracted?
https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/...
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Are headphones with EMF measurement of 10,000 milligauss harmful to me?
I used an Electric-Magnetic Field detector app on my phone and measured the EMF output on my wired headphones. It measured around 10,000 milligauss (1mT) on one part of both ear cups. Since wearing ...
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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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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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(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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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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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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