Canadian Medical Guide > Chemicals and Drugs > Immunologic and Biological Factors > Immunologic Factors Terms and Definitions

Immunologic Factors

Medical Definition:	Biologically active substances whose activities affect or play a role in the functioning of the immune system.
Guide Notes:	GEN; prefer specifics; used for mapping supplementary chemicals

Immunologic Factors Categories.

	Adjuvants, Immunologic - Substances that augment, stimulate, activate, potentiate, or modulate the immune response at either the cellular or humoral level. The classical agents (Freund's adjuvant, BCG, Corynebacterium parvum, et al.) contain bacterial antigens. Some are endogenous (e.g., histamine, interferon, transfer factor, tuftsin, interleukin-1). Their mode of action is either non-specific, resulting in increased immune responsiveness to a wide variety of antigens, or antigen-specific, i.e., affecting a restricted type of immune response to a narrow group of antigens. The therapeutic efficacy of many biological response modifiers is related to their antigen-specific immunoadjuvanticity.
	Agglutinins - Substances, usually of biological origin, that cause cells or other organic particles to aggregate and stick to each other. They also include those antibodies which cause aggregation or agglutination of a particulate or insoluble antigen.
	Antibodies - Immunoglobulin molecules having a specific amino acid sequence by virtue of which they interact only with the antigen that induced their synthesis in cells of the lymphoid series (especially PLASMA CELLS), or with an antigen closely related to it.
	Antigen-Antibody Complex - The complex formed by the binding of antigen and antibody molecules. The deposition of large antigen-antibody complexes leading to tissue damage causes IMMUNE COMPLEX DISEASES.
	Antigens - Substances that are recognized by the immune system and induce an immune reaction.
	Biological Response Modifiers - Biological or synthetic agents that are capable of eliciting specific and/or non-specific effects on immune responsiveness, thereby ultimately leading to an improvement in overall health of the patient. These agents can be further subcategorized into those that facilitate a normal immune response, those that stimulate the immune response, those that are capable of inducing noncytotoxic immunosuppression, and those that increase the ability of the host to tolerate damage by the cytotoxic modalities of the treatment.
	Cytokines - Non-antibody proteins secreted by inflammatory leukocytes and some non-leukocytic cells, that act as intercellular mediators. They differ from classical hormones in that they are produced by a number of tissue or cell types rather than by specialized glands. They generally act locally in a paracrine or autocrine rather than endocrine manner.
	Virus Inhibitors

Immunologic Factors Medical Definitions and Terms

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