A reduced response of the immune system caused deliberately, by medications or radiation, or not deliberately, by malnutrition, cancer or certain diseases such as acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).
Involves a process that reduces the activation or efficacy of the immune system.
Suppression of the body’s immune system and its ability to fight infections and other diseases.
A condition in which the immune system is not functioning normally may result from illness, certain drugs, or other environmental effects.
The suppression of the body’s natural immune system so that it will not reject a transplanted organ.
Decreased ability to fight infection; decreased antibody response to antigens.
Lowering of the body’s normal immune response to the invasion of foreign material. It may be deliberate, as in the administration of drugs to decrease the immune response to prevent rejection of transplanted organs, or incidental, resulting from chemotherapy or radiotherapy in cancer treatment.
Reduced ability of the body’s immune system to function adequately in warding off illness.
The term given to suppression of immune responses, the most obvious application being the prevention of organ rejection by people who receive kidney, heart or bone-marrow transplants. Immunosuppression is also used in certain diseases in a way that is non-specific that is, it inhibits the entire immune system, not just harmful reactions. Corticosteroids are the commonest dugs used in this way, as are methotrexate and azathioprine. Tacrolimus, a macrolide, is used not only for engrafted patients but also in treating eczema.
Prevention of immune responses (e.g., with drugs like mycophenolate or cyclosporine).
In MS, a form of treatment that slows or inhibits the body’s natural immune responses, including those directed against the body’s own tissues. Examples of immunosuppressive treatments in MS include mitoxantrone, cyclosporine, methotrexate, and azathioprine.