Immunoregulation And Autoimmunity

Since publication of the 4th Edition of The Autoimmune Diseases in 2006, the understanding of the immune mechanisms underlying autoimmunity and autoimmune disease has significantly deepened and broadened. This fully revised 5th Edition incorporates new material and combines common themes underlying inductive and effector mechanisms and therapies that relate generally to the autoimmune disorders. It discusses the biological basis of disease at genetic, molecular, cellular, and epidemiologic levels and includes expanded coverage of autoinflammatory disease and autoimmune responses to tumors. Gives a thorough and an important overview on the entire field, framing individual disease chapters with information that compares and contrasts each disorder and therapy Provides thorough, up-to-date information on specific diseases, along with clinical applications, in an easily found reference for clinicians and researchers interested in certain diseases Keeps readers abreast of current trends and emerging areas in the field Ensures that content is not only up-to-date, but applicable and relevant

This book presents an excellent review of the mechanisms underlying the phenomena of autoimmunity. It provides not only an update of the field's state of the art, but also presents new concepts in the fundamentals and treatment of autoimmune disorders. The finest example of the new approach is understanding the nature of autoimmunity and the treatment of autoimmune diseases is the introductory article. The author opposes the current dogma that autoimmune disorders should be treated with immunosuppressors, and postulates rather the activation of the immune system, which may lead to redirecting the immune response to the protective, Th-2 type of immunity. A series of articles deals with several aspects of the subject, such as the generation, progression, and regulation of autoimmune phenomena. The roles of pathogens, apoptosis, cytokines, complement components, and regulatory T cells are described, as well as the association between the immune and neurohormonal systems in major autoimmune disorders. This is not a textbook, but it is highly recommended for clinicians and university workers, and as supplementary reading for lecturers and students.

This is the most comprehensive review of the idiotypic network available. All the current knowledge of idiotypes of the various antibodies is incorporated in this volume. The pathogenic role of idiotypes in autoimmunity and cancer is reviewed in depth. The therapeutic part focusses on harnessing anti-idiotypes for treating autoimmunological disorders, and on the employment of idiotypes for vaccines in cancer and infectious diseases, as well as explaining the manipulation of the idiotypic network in autoimmunity and cancer idiotypes and vaccines.

Immunoregulation in Health and Disease, edited by Lukic, Colic, Mostarica-Stojkovic and Cuperlovic is a multi-authored volume covering the field of Immunoregulation, and will be essential reading for all researchers working in Immunology. Each section includes at least 10 papers contributed by experts from around the World, and covers in detail the wealth of knowledge relating to immunoregulation, both in health and disease. This book will provide an invaluable overview of immune system behaviour. The book is divided into four sections: Regulatory, effectory, and accessory cells of the immune response Molecular and cellular immunoregulatory mechanisms Hypersensitivity and autoimmunity Host reactivity to graft, tumour and infection

The Mosaic of Autoimmunity: The Novel Factors of Autoimmune Diseases describes the multifactorial origin and diversity of expression of autoimmune diseases in humans. The term implies that different combinations of factors in autoimmunity produce varying and unique clinical pictures in a wide spectrum of autoimmune diseases. Most of the factors involved in autoimmunity can be categorized into four groups: genetic, immune defects, hormonal and environmental factors. In this book, the environmental factors are reviewed, including infectious agents, vaccines as triggers of autoimmunity, smoking and its relationship with rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, thyroid disease, multiple sclerosis and inflammatory bowel diseases. An entirely new syndrome, the autoimmune/inflammatory syndrome induced by adjuvants (ASIA), is also included, along with other diseases that are now recognized as having an autoimmune etiopathogenesis. Highlights the concept of the mosaic of autoimmune manifestations Includes new visions on unsuspected molecules Provides updated knowledge to physicians helping patients with autoimmune diseases Presents thorough, up-to-date information on specific diseases, along with clinical applications

Translational Autoimmunity: Autoimmune Diseases in Different Clinical Settings addresses autoimmunity and associated conditions, such as aging, infectious diseases, cancer, neurodegeneration, psychological disorders, fertility, inflammatory vascular diseases, and interstitial lung diseases. The book addresses sufficiently basic questions on how the immune system is designed to distinguish self from no self and behave such that it's able to maintain self-tolerance, how does it work in infections, and how it elicits an auto-reactive state and develops self-antigens seen in autoimmune conditions. This is followed by an overview on the genetic and clinical aspects of the spectrum of autoimmune diseases which are broadly categorized into two types of organ specific autoimmune diseases and non-organ specific autoimmune diseases (also known as systemic autoimmune diseases). Covers clinical aspects of autoimmunity and translational immunology studies in autoimmunity in different clinical settings Meets the needs of basic scientists, clinicians, translational scientists and industry partners Supported by a systematic appraisal of the most recent evidence

This book explains how the immune system functions, namely, how individual cells of the immune system make the decision to respond or not to respond to foreign microbes and molecules, and how the critical molecules function to trigger the cellular reactions in an all-or-none (quantal) manner. To date, there has not been a complete description of the immune system and its cells and molecules, primarily because most of the information has accumulated only in the last 40 years and our understanding has been expanding rapidly only in the last 20 years. It is now clear that the cells have evolved a way to “count” the number of foreign antigenic molecular “hits”, and they only react when a critical number of events have accumulated. Subsequently, control over the reaction is transferred to a systemic lymphocytotrophic hormone system that determines the tempo, magnitude and duration of the immune reaction.This book explains in detail how the immune system, cells and molecules work for the first time. With this understanding as a basis, the pathogenesis of autoimmunity can now be understood as a mutational usurpation of the genes encoding molecules that participate in a sensitive feedback regulatory control of the immune reaction. By comparison, malignant transformation is understood as a mutational usurpation of the genes encoding the molecules that control the quantal decision to proliferate, so that normal ligand/receptor cell growth control is circumvented./a

Of the two disciplines in parallel development for two decades, tumor immunology and transplantation immunology, the latter has thrived and has led to some of the most critical discoveries in immunobiology. The former continues to thwart both scientists and clinicians alike.The goal of immunologists in modern day research is to develop a simple and effective means to manipulate cancer in vivo, possibly encompassing several venues: identifying a phenotypic marker and the use of either active or passive immunization; include the use of passive reagents carrying "warheads" to selectively destroy cancer cells; or altering the basic process of cell survival.This excellent multidiscipline-authored volume presents a theme which has not been well described before. The papers include both basic and clinical science and range from sophisticated molecular biology to little more than phenomenology (e.g. the increased association of cancer in some autoimmune diseases and increased presentation of autoimmune phenomena in malignant condition). This, however, is state-of-the-art.This collection of themes will be of use not only to bench scientists, but also to clinicians who treat patients. The book represents progress at the cutting edge of this discipline, and points the way to further developments in the "black box" of immunology.

A history of autoimmunity that validates the experience of patients while challenging assumptions about the distinction between the normal and the pathological. Winner of the NSW Premier's History Award of the Arts NSW Autoimmune diseases, which affect 5 to 10 percent of the population, are as unpredictable in their course as they are paradoxical in their cause. They produce persistent suffering as they follow a drawn-out, often lifelong, pattern of remission and recurrence. Multiple sclerosis, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and type 1 diabetes—the diseases considered in this book—are but a handful of the conditions that can develop when the immune system goes awry. Intolerant Bodies is a unique collaboration between Ian Mackay, one of the prominent founders of clinical immunology, and Warwick Anderson, a leading historian of twentieth-century biomedical science. The authors narrate the changing scientific understanding of the cause of autoimmunity and explore the significance of having a disease in which one’s body turns on itself. The book unfolds as a biography of a relatively new concept of pathogenesis, one that was accepted only in the 1950s. In their description of the onset, symptoms, and course of autoimmune diseases, Anderson and Mackay quote from the writings of Charles Dickens, Edgar Allan Poe, Joseph Heller, Flannery O’Connor, and other famous people who commented on or grappled with autoimmune disease. The authors also assess the work of the dedicated researchers and physicians who have struggled to understand the mysteries of autoimmunity. Connecting laboratory research, clinical medicine, social theory, and lived experience, Intolerant Bodies reveals how doctors and patients have come to terms, often reluctantly, with this novel and puzzling mechanism of disease causation.