Quantal Theory Of Immunity, The: The Molecular Basis Of Autoimmunity And Leukemia

The Molecular Basis of Autoimmunity and Leukemia

Kendall A Smith

• Publisher: World Scientific
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9789814271752, 9789814271752
• eBook ISBN: 9789814271769
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Science General
• Index: Biological Sciences

This book explains how the immune system functions, namely, how individual cells of the immune system make the decision to respond or not to respond to foreign microbes and molecules, and how the critical molecules function to trigger the cellular reactions in an all-or-none (quantal) manner. To date, there has not been a complete description of the immune system and its cells and molecules, primarily because most of the information has accumulated only in the last 40 years and our understanding has been expanding rapidly only in the last 20 years. It is now clear that the cells have evolved a way to "count" the number of foreign antigenic molecular "hits", and they only react when a critical number of events have accumulated. Subsequently, control over the reaction is transferred to a systemic lymphocytotrophic hormone system that determines the tempo, magnitude and duration of the immune reaction.This book explains in detail how the immune system, cells and molecules work for the first time. With this understanding as a basis, the pathogenesis of autoimmunity can now be understood as a mutational usurpation of the genes encoding molecules that participate in a sensitive feedback regulatory control of the immune reaction. By comparison, malignant transformation is understood as a mutational usurpation of the genes encoding the molecules that control the quantal decision to proliferate, so that normal ligand/receptor cell growth control is circumvented.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Prologue
• Chapter 1 Introduction — The Evolution of Our Understanding of the Immune System
• Chapter 2 Molecular Immunology
• Chapter 3 The Problem — Understanding How Molecules Direct the Behavior of Cells Comprising the Immune System
• Chapter 4 The Quantal Theory of Immunity
• Chapter 5 The Variability of Cell Cycle Progression and the Competence and Progression Phases of the Cell Cycle
• Chapter 6 The Quantal Nature of IL-2-Promoted T Cell Cycle Progression
• Chapter 7 The Molecular Basis for Quantal IL-2/IL-2R Signaling of Cell Cycle Progression — TheIL-2/Receptor Interaction
• Chapter 8 The Molecular Basis for Quantal IL-2/IL-2R Signaling of Cell CycleProgression — IL-2 and IL-2 Receptor Metabolism
• Chapter 9 The Molecular Basis for Quantal IL-2/IL-2R Signaling of Cell Cycle Progression — IL-2 Receptor Signaling viathe Jak/Stat Pathway
• Chapter 10 The Molecular Basis for Quantal IL-2/IL-2R Signaling of Cell Cycle Progression — IL-2 Receptor Signaling via Phosphorylation of IL-2R β Chain Y338
• Chapter 11 The T Cell Antigen Receptor Complex and the Quantal Regulation of the IL-2 and IL-2R Genes
• Chapter 12 Digital Signaling via the T Cell Antigen Receptor Complex
• Chapter 13 Negative Feedback Regulation of T Cell Antigen Receptor Complex Signaling — Attenuation of IL-2Gene Expression
• Chapter 14 The Paradox of the IL-2 (-/-) Mouse
• Chapter 15 The Scurfy Mouse
• Chapter 16 Lymphopenia, Autoimmunity and the Regulatory T Cell (Treg)
• Chapter 17 Treg-mediated “Active Suppression” of T Cell Proliferation
• Chapter 18 FOXP3, A Better ID-Tag for Tregs?
• Chapter 19 Mice Versus Men
• Chapter 20 Active Versus Passive Suppression and IL-2 Metabolism
• Chapter 21 FOXP3 Restricts But Does Not Suppress IL-2 Production
• Chapter 22 Both the TCR and IL-2 Regulate FOXP3 Expression
• Chapter 23 The Effects of FOXP3 Expression
• Chapter 24 The Role of IL-2 in the Generation of Immune Responses In Vivo
• Chapter 25 The Role of the IL-2r Chains in IL-2 Signaling, Consumption and Suppression of T Cell Proliferation
• Chapter 26 T Cell Tissue-specific Autoimmunity
• Chapter 27 Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM), a Prototypic Genetic Autoimmune Disease with a Tie to IL-2
• Chapter 28 The Pathogenesis of Leukemia — Loss of Normal Quantal Growth Control
• Epilogue
• Index