AUTOIMMUNITY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does autoimmunity mean? 

• AUTOIMMUNITY (noun)
  The noun AUTOIMMUNITY has 1 sense:

1. production of antibodies against the tissues of your own body; produces autoimmune disease or hypersensitivity reactions

  Familiarity information: AUTOIMMUNITY used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• AUTOIMMUNITY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Production of antibodies against the tissues of your own body; produces autoimmune disease or hypersensitivity reactions

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("autoimmunity" is a kind of...):

pathology (any deviation from a healthy or normal condition)

Holonyms ("autoimmunity" is a part of...):

autoimmune disease; autoimmune disorder (any of a large group of diseases characterized by abnormal functioning of the immune system that causes your immune system to produce antibodies against your own tissues)

Derivation:

autoimmune (of or relating to the immune response of the body against substance normally present in the body)

 Context examples 

The Fas-FasL interaction plays an important role in the immune system and lack of this system leads to autoimmunity, indicating that Fas-mediated apoptosis removes self-reactive lymphocytes.

(Fas Signaling Pathway BioCarta, NCI Thesaurus/BIOCARTA)

They may also prevent autoimmunity by suppressing self-reactive T cells, and may induce tolerance to allogeneic organ transplants such as in hematopoietic stem cell transplants.

(Inducible CD4+CD25+ Regulatory T Cells, NCI Thesaurus)

Now, a novel computational method shows that a viral protein found in EBV-infected human cells may activate genes associated with increased risk for autoimmunity.

(Epstein-Barr virus protein can “switch on” risk genes for autoimmune diseases, National Institutes of Health)

A disorder characterized by the degeneration of the nervous system due to autoimmunity.

(Autoimmune Nervous System Disorder, NCI Thesaurus)

Anti-idiotype vaccine therapy is less likely to induce autoimmunity if the target antigen is not normally expressed on normal tissues.

(Anti-Idiotype Specified Monoclonal Antibody, NCI Thesaurus)

Pertaining to autoimmunity.

(Autoimmune, NCI Thesaurus)

CD4+CD25+ T regulatory cells (Tregs), a subset of CD4+ T cells expressing high levels of CD25 and the transcription factor Foxp3, are essential in maintaining immunologic homeostasis, preventing autoimmunity by suppressing self-reactive T cells; CD4+CD25+ Tregs may induce tolerance to allogeneic organ transplants such as hematopoetic stem cell transplants (HSCTs).

(CD4+ CD25+ Regulatory T Cells, NCI Thesaurus)