this is unit 12 immunosuppressant agents in chemotherapy unit objectives are listed on your outline so be sure and review and then the associated reading assignments are listed here too which chapters each of the class of medications are in reference to so immune system overview this begins in chapter 48 page 755 physiology major system in the body so when we're talking about the role of the immune system basically its role is to distinguish itself from non-self and to protect the body from any type of foreign materials otherwise known as antigens provides resistance to foreign invaders so those things like pathogens and foreign bodies the immune system's jobs to help defend the body against invading pathogens or foreign bodies in regard to response this is primarily in unit 9 an overview for you since we've already talked about this in unit 9. so this is unit 9 biological response modifiers which is in chapter 47. humoral b so remember that those are lymphocytes or b cells we have antibody production and then immunoglobulins these are all responses that are mediated by the b cells okay and those b cells or those b cell antibodies actually originate in the bone marrow that's why they call or are called b cells and then cell mediated we have t lymphocytes or t cells and those are all immune responses that are immediated that are mediated by t cells and they mature in the thymus so we have inflammatory mediators such as cytokines histamine interleukins serotonin bradykin and prostaglandins are also some of those we've already talked about those before pathophysiology of autoimmune and immune mediated diseases so when we have an autoimmune disease the body tissues are attacked by its own immune system so that's what's happening there so we have an alteration in the normal immune system that cause the function to direct action against normal tissue so we have triggers that can actually cause this to occur it could be genetic it could be hormones maybe sex hormones or other antibodies and then even environment or drugs some examples of autoimmune system diseases would be like rheumatoid arthritis systemic lupus erythematosus it's abbreviated as sle uh sle is it's an autoimmune inflammatory disease and it can affect the joints skin kidneys blood cells brain heart and lungs and then a couple more as examples that aren't listed on your outline if you've heard of ms multiple sclerosis this is a degeneration of the myelin sheath that's that protective layer of our nerve cells and so resulting from that we end up with nerve damage and then this disruption in communication between the brain and the body so there's a huge cascade of symptoms it could be impaired vision or vision loss pain fatigue but typically you'll end up seeing impaired coordination psoriasis is also another example that's a skin condition what's happening there is it's it's a skin condition that speeds up the life cycle of skin cells and it causes those cells to build up rapidly on the surface of the skin and then those extra skin cells form scales and red patches that are really itchy and sometimes even painful and that can be triggered by stress maybe even smoking or vitamin d deficiencies um sometimes certain medications or even a strep infection or other skin infection so immune mediated diseases these are types of immune reactions okay so this results when cells of the immune system react to transplant transplanted organ tissue or drug altered cells so we have a alteration in normal immune system that causes cells to react against cells and the trigger could be foreign cells and as an example and see it would be um an organ transplant so a patient that has maybe had an organ transplant