Immunity
By: William E. Paul, MD
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 260
ISBN-13: 9781421418018
Subjects: Immunity; Immunologic diseases; Immune system
Description: "The immune system has incredible power to protect us from the ravages of infection. Boosted by vaccines, it can protect us individually and as a "herd" from diseases such as measles. However, the power of the immune system is a double-edged sword: an overactive immune system can wreak havoc, destroying normal tissue and causing diseases such as type I diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and multiple sclerosis. The consequences of an impaired immune system, on the other hand, are all too evident in the clinical agonies of AIDS. Packed with illustrations, stories from Dr. William E. Paul's distinguished career, and fascinating accounts of scientific discovery, Immunity presents the three laws of the human immune system--universality, tolerance, and appropriateness--and explains how the system protects and harms us. From the tale of how smallpox was overcome and the lessons of the Ebola epidemic to the hope that the immune system can be used to treat or prevent cancer, Dr. Paul argues that we must take advantage of cutting-edge technologies and promising new tools in immunological research."--Book jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Part 1.; title: Immunology.; title: Defense and danger ;; title: Tracing an immune response ;; title: The laws of immunology: universality, tolerance, and appropriateness ;; title: Growing up and learning immunology -- -- Part 2.; title: The first law: universality.; title: Vaccines and serum therapy ;; title: How is specificity achieved? ;; title: Immunology's "eureka": clonal selection ;; title: How does each lymphocyte develop a distinct receptor? ;; title: B cells and T cells recognize different types of antigens ;; title: My foray into the specificity problem ;; title: Genes and immune response ;; title: The Laboratory of Immunology and the T-cell receptor -- -- Part 3.; title: The second law: tolerance. ;; title: What is tolerance? ;; title: How does tolerance develop? ;; title: Regulatory T cells and the prevention of autoimmunity -- -- Part 4.; title: The third law: appropriateness.; title: Different structures, different functions ;; title: Specific types of infections, specific types of T-cell responses ;; title: Our discovery of IL-4 and the cells that make it ;; title: CD8 T cells: killer cells and friends ;; title: Dendritic cells: the cells that interpret the infectious threat -- -- Part 5.; title: How did the immune system evolve?.; title: An "ancient" immune response controls "modern" immunity ;; title: The microbiome and innate immunity ;; title: Evolution of the immune system and innate lymphoid cells -- -- Part 6.; title: AIDS, autoimmunity, allergy, cancer, and transplantation.; title: The HIV epidemic and the Office of AIDS Research ;; title: How the immune system causes rheumatoid arthritis and lupus ;; title: Allergy and asthma ;; title: Interleukin-4 and allergy ;; title: Can the immune system control cancer? ;; title: New parts for old: bone marrow and organ transplantation ;; title: Julien -- -- Conclusion.; title: The future of immunology.