Fundamentals of the Immune System

The Immune System is the name of a collection of molecules, (i.e.,  interferon's and interleukin's), cells, and organs whose complex interaction form an efficient system that is usually able to protect an individual from both outside invaders and its own altered self cells which lead to cancer.

The immune system is comprised of the lymphoid tissues and organs of the body. Lymphoid tissues are widely distributed. They are concentrated in bone marrow, lymph nodes, spleen, liver, thymus, and Peyer's patch scattered in the linings of the GI tract.

The immune system is divided into two components, non-specific, also referred to as innate or non-adaptive immunity and specific which is also known as acquired or adaptive immunity. The breakdown into non-specific and specific is for classification purposes only as there is a constant and complex interaction, coordination and communication through precise signaling between all parts of the immune system. The majority of the immune resistance occurs in the non-specific components.

The non-specific defense system responds immediately to protect the body from all foreign substances, whatever they are. The non-specific system reduces the workload of the specific defense system, by preventing entry and spread of micro-organisms throughout the entire body.

 98% of the immune response triggered at the early stages of infection is non-specific.

Lines of Defense

• 1^st lines of defense are the physical barriers which include the skin, mucosal membrane, tears, ciliary elevator, and urine. Chemical barriers include sebum sweat, stomach acid and lysozymes.

• 2^nd lines of defense are the macrophage system, complement, fever, interferon's and inflammation. The macrophage system attacks and consumes pathogens by engulfing them, a process known as phagocytosis.

Complement cooperates with macrophages by attaching to foreign cells and initiating the ingestion of the cells by phagocytosis. Interferon's are a class of proteins; activated by fever that prevent viral replication in surrounding cells and also inhibit the growth of cancer cells.

The antiviral action of interferon's provides the body a major defense against viral infections.

Fever is a powerful part of the immune system, as it interferes with pathogen growth, inactivates many pathogen toxins, and facilitates a more intense immune system response.

Fever is a systematic response to infection. It is generally agreed that moderate elevation of body temperature improves the body's disease fighting capacity.

When tissue injury occurs, whether caused by bacteria or viruses, or by any other means, substances such as  complement, and histamines are released. This process is called inflammation and it strongly activates the macrophage system to remove damaged cell tissue. Inflammation is a vital part of the healing and repair process of the immune system and when it is delayed or inhibited, healing and repair is incomplete.

Inflammation is one of the most important mechanisms of our body's defense since it marshals the attack on the injurious agent and leads to repair of the affected tissue.

• 3^rd lines of defense are the specific system also known as acquired or adaptive immunity. The specific system consists of B cells (humoral), and T cells (cell-mediated). These cells have mechanisms for selecting a precisely defined target and for developing memory to the antigen, so that subsequent exposures will result in a more efficient and effective response.

Definition of Immunity

1. Protection against infectious disease by either specific or non-specific mechanisms.

Every standard definition of immunity involves the overall competence of both the non-specific and specific components of the immune system to recognize, isolate and eliminate foreign pathogens. This competence also involves the ability of the immune system to be able to distinguish between self and non-self cells of the body.

Immunity is the body's ability to establish and maintain molecular identity. There is a huge difference between true immunity and the absence of symptoms of disease.

An autoimmune response is when the immune system is altered or impaired and is no longer capable of distinguishing between self and non-self cells eventually leading to self cells being identified as the invader or antigen.  Unlike infections or damaged cells that come and go as the result of there eradication by a normal immune system, in autoimmune disorders the damaged or altered immune system is programmed to identify and destroy normal self cells.  Unlike infections and damaged cells that come and go, these normal self cells are of course always present and therefore always under attack and because they are normal self cells never go away thus the autoimmune response likewise never goes away.    Examples of autoimmune diseases are rheumatoid arthritis, celiac disease, AIDS, autoimmune inner ear disease, crohn's disease, fibromyalgia, lupus, psoriasis, just to name a few.

When cell components of the body's immune system come in contact with Aldara / imiquimod, the drug causes the normal immune system to begin performing very unnatural acts by turning off some very important control signals while turning on others that are very unnatural and dangerous which when combined tell the "altered" immune system to seek out and identify virtually any type cell for destruction.   In other words, the drug action of Aldara is very much NON-SPECIFIC in what it causes the immune system to identify as an invader and to attack.   If Aldara is applied often enough and for treatment periods longer than 21-days, 3M has found that the immune system can develop memory to almost any type cell including self cells.  Once this memory process has been accomplished,  your immune system has been damaged by the "immune response modifier" drug Aldara and can result in any number of autoimmune disorders which is what I feel happened to me over four years ago in 2000.