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Immunosuppression is a reduction of the activation or efficacy of the immune system. Some portions of the immune system itself have immunosuppressive effects on other parts of the immune system, and immunosuppression may occur as an adverse reaction to treatment of other conditions.
Immunotherapy or biological therapy is the treatment of disease by activating or suppressing the immune system.Immunotherapies designed to elicit or amplify an immune response are classified as activation immunotherapies, while immunotherapies that reduce or suppress are classified as suppression immunotherapies.
The immunosuppressive drugs also interact with other medicines and affect their metabolism and action. Actual or suspected immunosuppressive agents can be evaluated in terms of their effects on lymphocyte subpopulations in tissues using immunohistochemistry .
For medications, the term immunosuppression generally refers to both beneficial and potential adverse effects of decreasing the function of the immune system, while the term immunodeficiency generally refers solely to the adverse effect of increased risk for infection. Many specific diseases directly or indirectly cause immunosuppression.
Treatments for autoimmune disease have traditionally been immunosuppressive, anti-inflammatory, or palliative. [12] Managing inflammation is critical in autoimmune diseases. [ 36 ] Non-immunological therapies, such as hormone replacement in Hashimoto's thyroiditis or Type 1 diabetes mellitus treat outcomes of the autoaggressive response, thus ...
This process of acquired immunity is the basis of vaccination. Dysfunction of the immune system can cause autoimmune diseases, inflammatory diseases and cancer. Immunodeficiency occurs when the immune system is less active than normal, resulting in recurring and life-threatening infections.
The explanation for this is that while "biologic" or "biopharmaceutical" refers to the chemical composition of medications which might be used to treat a range of medical conditions, when the term "biologic" became popular, many biologic medications available provided immunosuppression.
Antibody specific to select immune components can be added to immunosuppressive therapy. The monoclonal anti-T cell antibody OKT3 , once used to prevent rejection, and still occasionally used to treat severe acute rejection, has fallen into disfavor, as it commonly brings severe cytokine release syndrome and late post-transplant ...