Читать книгу Immunology - Richard Coico - Страница 32

This brief overview of the immune system is intended to orient the reader about the complex yet fascinating subject of immunology. In the following chapters we provide a more detailed account of the workings of the immune system, beginning with its cellular components, followed by a description of the structure of the reactants and the general methodology for measuring their reactions. This is followed by chapters describing the formation and activation of the cellular and molecular components of the immune apparatus required to generate a response. A discussion of the control mechanisms that regulate the scope and intensity of immune responses completes the description of the basic nature of immunity. Included in this section of the book is a chapter on cytokines (Chapter 11), the soluble mediators that regulate immune responses and play a significant role in hematopoiesis. Next are chapters that deal with the great variety of diseases involving immunological components. These vary from ineffective or absent immune responses (immunodeficiency) to those produced by aberrant immune responses (hypersensitivity) to responses to self‐antigens (autoimmunity). This is followed by chapters that describe the role of the immune response in transplantation and discuss antitumor reactions. Chapter 19 focuses on the spectrum of microorganisms that challenge the immune system and how immune responses are mounted in a vigilant, orchestrated fashion to protect the host from infectious diseases. Included is a discussion of immunoprophylaxis using vaccines that protect us from variety of pathogenic organisms. Without question, the successful use of vaccines helped revolutionize the field of medicine in the twentieth century. What lies ahead in the twenty‐first century are research efforts related to the development of crucial new vaccines to protect humankind from naturally occurring pathogenic microorganisms and viruses (most notably HIV and the novel coronavirus responsible for the recent COVID‐19 pandemic), as well as those that have been engineered as potential biological weapons, or have yet to be identified.

With the enormous scope of the subject and the extraordinary richness of detail available, we have made every effort to adhere to fundamental elements and basic concepts required to achieve an integrated, if not extensive, understanding of the immune response. If the reader’s interest has been aroused, many current books, articles, and reviews, and growing numbers of educational internet sites, including the one that supports this textbook (see the preface), are available to flesh out the details on the scaffolding provided by this book.