Medicine has great hopes for personalised cancer immunotherapy. The idea is to have a vaccine prompt the immune system to fight a tumour. Scientists at ETH Zurich have developed a method that allows them to determine which ...
Mar 29, 2019
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This week, Western Australia announced a state government-funded immunization program against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). It's the first Australian state or territory to do so.
Mar 7, 2024
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A new study examining the impact of the global polio vaccine campaign has identified important lessons that "should be considered for COVID-19 vaccine roll-outs over coming years."
Nov 15, 2021
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COVID-19 could continue to cause recurrent waves and deaths despite frequent vaccinations according to a new study from the University of East Anglia.
May 20, 2021
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As Australia's COVID-19 vaccine roll-out commences, all eyes are on the government's communication strategy—particularly with some studies finding vaccine hesitancy is on the rise in the country.
Mar 1, 2021
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Meningococcus group B, the most prevalent strain of meningococcal infection, is prevented with 79 per cent effectiveness in children and young adults inoculated with the 4CMenB vaccine, also known as Bexsero, according to ...
Dec 1, 2020
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The COVID-19 pandemic has caused widespread social disruption globally, with routine immunization services affected in many countries.
Nov 19, 2020
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Researchers from the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), MIT's research enterprise in Singapore, have found a practical way to induce a strong and broad immunity to the dengue virus based on proof-of-concept ...
Jul 27, 2020
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The novel coronavirus pandemic that has forced billions of people across the globe to stay home is making parents skip routine immunisations for their kids, the United Nations children's agency UNICEF warned Thursday.
Mar 26, 2020
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A study by the University of Southampton shows that several low-and middle-income countries, especially in Africa, need more effective child vaccination strategies to eliminate the threat from vaccine-preventable diseases.
Apr 11, 2019
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Immunization, or immunisation, is the process by which an individual's immune system becomes fortified against an agent (known as the immunogen).
When this system is exposed to molecules that are foreign to the body (non-self), it will orchestrate an immune response, but it can also develop the ability to quickly respond to a subsequent encounter (through immunological memory). This is a function of the adaptive immune system. Therefore, by exposing an animal to an immunogen in a controlled way, its body can learn to protect itself: this is called active immunization.
The most important elements of the immune system that are improved by immunization are the B cells (and the antibodies they produce) and T cells. Memory B cell and memory T cells are responsible for a swift response to a second encounter with a foreign molecule. Passive immunization is when these elements are introduced directly into the body, instead of when the body itself has to make these elements.
Immunization be done through various techniques, most commonly vaccination. Vaccines against microorganisms that cause diseases can prepare the body's immune system, thus helping to fight or prevent an infection. The fact that mutations can cause cancer cells to produce proteins or other molecules that are unknown to the body forms the theoretical basis for therapeutic cancer vaccines. Other molecules can be used for immunization as well, for example in experimental vaccines against nicotine (NicVAX) or the hormone ghrelin (in experiments to create an obesity vaccine).
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
