Autoimmunity

Immune Diseases

The immune system has developed a variety of approaches to controlling viral and bacterial infection, which range from direct killing of pathogen to elaborating cytokines that inhibit replication.  Pathogens have countered by developing a variety of immune evasion mechanisms that inhibit cytokine function and prevent immune recognition of infected cells.  The human immune system typically produces both T cells and B cells that are capable of being reactive with self-antigens, but these self-reactive cells are usually either killed prior to becoming active within the immune system, placed into a state of, or removed from their role within the immune system by regulatory cells.