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Biological response modifiers (BRMs) are substances that modify immune responses. They can be endogenous (produced naturally within the body) or exogenous (as pharmaceutical drugs ), and they can either enhance an immune response or suppress it .
Two papers appearing in 1994 anticipated the deeper understanding of innate immune reactivity, pointing towards the subsequent understanding of the nature of the adaptive immune response. The first [ 8 ] came from transplant surgeons who conducted a prospective randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.
Immunotherapy or biological therapy is the treatment of disease by activating or suppressing the immune system.Immunotherapy is designed to elicit or amplify an immune response are classified as activation immunotherapies, while immunotherapies that reduce or suppress are classified as suppression immunotherapies.
However, strictly speaking, immunogenicity refers to the ability of an antigen to induce an adaptive immune response. Thus an antigen might bind specifically to a T or B cell receptor, but not induce an adaptive immune response. If the antigen does induce a response, it is an 'immunogenic antigen', which is referred to as an immunogen.
Around the same time, Ehrlich was trying to understand the basis of selectivity of agents. [6] He theorized that selectivity was the basis of a preferential distribution of lead and dyes in different body tissues. However, he later modified the theory in order to explain immune reactions and the selectivity of the immune response. [6]
Immunochemistry is also used to describe the application of immune system components, in particular antibodies, to chemically labelled antigen molecules for visualization. Various methods in immunochemistry have been developed and refined, and used in scientific study, from virology to molecular evolution .
The development of a downregulating immune response to the shared epitope between pathogen and host may be the best way of treating an autoimmune disease caused by molecular mimicry. [24] Alternatively, treatment with immunosuppressive drugs such as ciclosporin and azathioprine has also been used as a possible solution. However, in many cases ...
There are two main categories of immunostimulants: [1] Specific immunostimulants provide antigenic specificity in immune response, such as vaccines or any antigen.; Non-specific immunostimulants act irrespective of antigenic specificity to augment immune response of other antigen or stimulate components of the immune system without antigenic specificity, such as adjuvants and non-specific ...