Detailed list of Autoimmune diseases

Detailed list of Autoimmune diseases

Disorders or weaknesses of the immune system or individual components thereof can cause or promote various diseases. Possible consequences of a malfunctioning immune system are infections with pathogenic agents of various kinds or about the proliferation and spread of cancer cells. Autoimmune Diseases and allergies are based on a functional but misguided defense directed against the body's own or harmless structures.

Here you can learn more about: • • • • • •

Infectious diseases Cancer and immune system Autoimmune diseases Congenital or acquired immunodeficiency Immune Suppression- Therapeutically suppressed immune functions Allergies as excess immune response

Infectious diseases Every day our body comes in a variety of ways with countless pathogens of various kinds such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites in touch. As long as the defense works smoothly, we usually notice nothing of it. But even an intact immune system does not always keep us 100% from getting sick. For example, a condition can occur when the immune system's performance is weakened, when pathogens are particularly aggressive, or sometimes when the body is confronted with a previously unknown pathogen. Also, generally healthy people occasionally face infections, which in most cases are harmless.

Most common are flu infections with a sore throat, runny nose, and cough.

Cancer and immune system If the genetic material of a cell is disturbed, it can change morbidly. As long as these are only a few cells and they are kept in check by the body's defense system, they do not hurt. Only when they start to divide uncontrollably does cancer develop. However, when it comes to monitoring tumor cells, the

immune system faces a more difficult task: cancer cells are endogenous cells. However, one's body should not normally be attacked.

Our immune system is not fundamentally powerless against cancer cells. It can certainly recognize and destroy them. The same mechanisms also play a role in eliminating endogenous aged or defective cells.

This process is probably even the "normal case", without us feeling any of it- otherwise, cancer would be even more common than it actually is.

However, tumor cells develop mechanisms to escape this defense. They lose more and more properties that signal to the immune system that these cells are "different" or damaged and must be destroyed.

Then the immune system treats cancer cells like healthy tissue.

Cancers of the immune system In addition to various organs such as lungs and kidneys, the immune cells can degenerate malignant and multiply uncontrollably. Depending on which types of immune cells out of control, there are different symptoms. The malignant cells found in the blood, one speaks of leukemia, which is characterized by a disturbed blood formation and defense weakness. If the organs and cells of the lymphatic system are affected, this malignant disease is called malignant lymphoma.

Autoimmune diseases In these diseases, the immune system confuses the body's own components with foreign antigens: it produces antibodies against the body's own cells or other structures, with the result that they are damaged or destroyed. These are mostly chronic diseases. Auto-antibodies can be detected in blood serum or in tissue samples. Today, a variety of autoantibodies are known. Some play a role in various diseases; others are very specific to a particular disease; that is, they only appear.

Autoimmune Diseases involve, for example, type 1 diabetes mellitus, collagenases such as systemic lupus erythematosus, Graves' disease (a type of hyperthyroidism) or multiple sclerosis, and a variety of chronic inflammatory vascular and joint diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis or ankylosing spondylitis.

Congenital or acquired immunodeficiency There are both congenital as well as acquired in the course of liver diseases in which a deficiency in the immune system basically creates a defensive weakness. True immune disorders are relatively rare. This is especially true for severe congenital immune deficiencies. In most cases, those affected are already very susceptible to infections as children, and these are often more severe than in people without immune deficiency.

The world's most common acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is AIDS (Acquired Immuno-deficiency Syndrome), in which HI (Human Immunodeficiency) viruses infect the cells of the immune system. As a result, infectious agents, which are generally harmless to healthy people, cause severe, so-called opportunistic infections. In addition, cancer cells can multiply more easily. Even in diseases with uncontrolled proliferation of immune cells such as leukemia and lymphoma, the immune system is impaired. Because the malignantly altered cells are disturbed in their function and also displace the still functioning immune cells.

Allergies as excess immune response Allergies are an overpowering, inappropriate response of the immune system to environmental substances. This hypersensitivity reaction differs from a normal immune response in that symptoms are usually rapid as a result of exposure to a harmless substance called allergen. Allergens are therefore antigens that trigger reactions in the body- even in small amounts- with symptoms. In contrast to a pathogen, however, they themselves have no direct pathogenic effect.

Whether the reaction of the immune system to an antigen as a "normal" immune response, that is with the formation of antigen-specific IgG antibodies, as in an infection proceeds or with the formation of specific IgE antibodies in the sense of an allergy, depends on various factors. A distinction is made between patient-related and environmental factors.

Among the patient-related factors count 1. Type and location of allergen contact and intake of the allergen as well 2. The age and genetic predisposition of those affected.

Environmental factors are: • • • •

Buildup and immunogenicity (that is, the ability to trigger an immune response / allergic reaction) of the allergen, Type and duration of allergen action, Influence of additional factors influencing the immune response as well Pollution or infections.

Therapeutically suppressed immune functions A number of medications, known as immunosuppressive drugs, are designed to suppress immune function.

A number of medications and other therapeutic modalities (especially the use of radioactive rays) may interfere with immune function. This either as an undesirable side effect or intended if certain parts of the immune system should be deliberately suppressed. Such a therapy is called immunosuppression; the drugs are called immunosuppressants.

For example, recipients of organ transplants must take lifelong medicines that suppress certain parts of the immune reaction to the transplanted organ of foreign donors. Otherwise, it threatens a rejection

reaction, in which the immune system is directed against the foreign donor organ. Anti-autoimmune drugs also have an immunosuppressive effect by suppressing the disease-causing immune response.

In an immunosuppressive treatment, one tries to inhibit as specific as possible only certain parts or reactions of the immune system. However, this succeeds only partially, so that undesirable effects are not always avoidable. These consist mainly of an increased risk of infectious diseases, and the long term for cancer. The development of modern active ingredients such as biologics, i.e., biotechnologically produced substances, but allows an increasingly targeted therapy in which unwanted side effects can be reduced to a minimum.

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