Immune System: Freedom from the Burden of Diseases

Abstract

In the daily life of a healthy individual, microorganisms are encountered at random, causing diseases only occasionally. The defense mechanisms mostly detect these microbes and destroyed them within minutes or hours through mechanisms of innate immunity. Adaptive immunity acts through antigen-specific lymphocytes to culminate pathogens. Both the innate and adaptive immune systems, to recognize pathogens, distinguish between self and nonself particles. The innate immunity discriminates very successfully between host cells and pathogens, providing earlier defenses and also induces adaptive immune responses. Defects in the components of innate immunity, in very rare cases, can lead to amplified susceptibility to infection, even in the presence of an intact adaptive immunity.