Immune System and Allergy Terms

The body's identity badge, read by T cells to tell its own healthy cells from infected, faulty or transplanted ones.

Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis, abbreviated HLH, is a rare condition of excessive immune activation that damages organs and destroys blood cells.

The older name for a lymphoma that stands apart from every other one, in the cell that defines it and in the way it spreads.

Painless swelling of a node in the neck is the usual opening, sometimes with drenching night sweats and a fever that comes and goes.

A vaccine used to prevent genital warts, cervical cancer, vulvar cancer, and vaginal cancer caused by certain types of human papillomavirus (HPV).

A monoclonal antibody that is being studied in the treatment of some types of cancer.

A monoclonal antibody being studied in the treatment of several types of cancer.

A monoclonal antibody that binds to the protein MUC1, which is found on breast, ovarian, pancreatic, gastric, and colon cancer cells.

A monoclonal antibody being studied in the treatment of advanced multiple myeloma.

One of a group of proteins found on the surface of white blood cells and other cells that play an important part in the body's immune response to foreign substances.

Built from empty shells of the virus coat, so it shows the immune system the right shape while containing no genetic material at all.

A type of antibody made in the laboratory by combining a human antibody with a small part of a mouse or rat monoclonal antibody.

Hydrocortisone is a corticosteroid identical to the body's own cortisol, used both to replace a hormone shortfall and to calm inflammation and immune overactivity.

The damage comes from the response rather than the substance, as harmless proteins provoke a reaction built for parasites and pathogens.

A radiolabeled monoclonal antibody that is used to treat certain types of B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma and is being studied in the treatment of other types of B-cell tumors.

An oil and water emulsion mixed with a vaccine to make the immune system respond more strongly to it.

Ig is the abbreviation used in laboratory and immunology reports for immunoglobulin, the family of antibody proteins made by immune cells.

A monoclonal antibody linked to a toxic substance.

A drug that stimulates the immune system to respond to disease.

Shorthand for how well the body detects, remembers and clears threats, rather than anything a single blood test can report.