How the Immune System Works / Edition 5

by Lauren M. Sompayrac

Overview

How the Immune System Works has helped thousands of students understand what’s in their big, thick, immunology textbooks. In his book, Dr. Sompayrac cuts through the jargon and details to reveal, in simple language, the essence of this complex subject.

In fifteen easy-to-read chapters, featuring the humorous style and engaging analogies developed by Dr. Sompayrac, How the Immune System Works explains how the immune system players work together to protect us from disease – and, most importantly, why they do it this way.

Rigorously updated for this fifth edition, How the Immune System Works includes the latest information on subjects such as vaccines, the immunology of AIDS, and cancer. A highlight of this edition is a new chapter on the intestinal immune system – currently one of the hottest topics in immunology.

Whether you are completely new to immunology, or require a refresher, How the Immune System Works will provide you with a clear and engaging overview of this fascinating subject. But don’t take our word for it! Read what students have been saying about this classic book:

"What an exceptional book! It's clear you are in the hands of an expert."

"Possibly the Best Small Text of All Time!"

"This is a FUN book, and Lauren Sompayrac does a fantastic job of explaining the immune system using words that normal people can understand."

"Hands down the best immunology book I have read... a very enjoyable read."

"This is simply one of the best medical textbooks that I have ever read. Clear diagrams coupled with highly readable text make this whole subject easily understandable and engaging."

Now with a brand new website at www.wiley.com/go/sompayrac featuring Powerpoint files of the images from the book

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781118997772
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	11/02/2015
Series:	How it Works Series
Edition description:	Older Edition
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	8.40(w) x 10.70(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Lauren Sompayrac, PhD, was a Research Professor in the Department of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology at the University of Colorado, USA. He is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Pathology at the Harvard Medical School. Now retired, Dr. Sompayrac is the author of How the Immune System Works, How Pathogenic Viruses Work, How Cancer Works, and How Pathogenic Viruses Think.

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgments, vii

How to Use This Book, viii

This book is neither a comprehensive text nor an exam-review tool. It is an overview of the immune system, designed to give anyone who is learning immunology a feel for how the system fits together.

Lecture 1 An Overview, 1

The immune system is a “team effort,” involving many different players who work together to provide a powerful defense against invaders. Focusing in on one player at a time makes it hard to understand the game. Here we view the action from the grandstands to get a wide-angle picture of what the immune system is all about.

Lecture 2 The Innate Immune System, 13

The innate immune system is a “hard-wired” defense that has evolved over millions of years to recognize pathogens that commonly infect humans. It provides a rapid and powerful response against “everyday” invaders.

Lecture 3 B Cells and Antibodies, 27

B cells and the antibodies they produce are part of the adaptive immune system. This defense evolves during our own lifetime to protect us against invaders that we, personally, have never encountered before.

Lecture 4 The Magic of Antigen Presentation, 42

T cells, another weapon of the adaptive immune system, only recognize invaders which are “properly presented” by specialized antigen presenting cells. This feature keeps these important cells focused on the particular attackers which they are able to defend against.

Lecture 5 T Cell Activation, 55

Before they can spring into action, T cells must be activated. This requirement helps insure that only useful weapons will be mobilized.

Lecture 6 T Cells at Work, 63

Once they have been activated, helper T cells orchestrate the immune response, and killer T cells destroy infected cells.

Lecture 7 Secondary Lymphoid Organs and Lymphocyte Trafficking, 72

B and T lymphocytes travel through secondary lymphoid organs looking for the intruders they can defend against. Once activated in the secondary lymphoid organs, B and T cells are dispatched to the particular areas of the body where they can be most useful.

Lecture 8 Restraining the Immune System, 84

The powerful weapons of the immune system must be restrained lest they become overexuberant. In addition, once an invader has been defeated, the immune system must be “reset” to prepare for future attacks.

Lecture 9 Self Tolerance and MHC Restriction, 88

T cells must be trained to focus on appropriately presented invaders, and B and T lymphocytes must learn not to attack our own bodies.

Lecture 10 Immunological Memory, 98

The innate immune system remembers pathogens which have been attacking humans for millions of years. In contrast, B and T cells remember pathogens we have encountered during our lifetime. Memory B and T lymphocytes respond more quickly and effectively to a subsequent attack by the same invader.

Lecture 11 The Intestinal Immune System, 103

The human intestines are home to trillions of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites. How the immune system deals with these potentially dangerous intestinal residents, which frequently invade the tissues surrounding the intestines, is a hot topic in immunology.

Lecture 12 Vaccines, 110

Vaccines safely mimic the attack of an invader so that our immune system will be primed and ready for a future challenge by the same invader.

Lecture 13 The Immune System Gone Wrong, 116

The immune system generally does a good job of defending us without causing a lot of “collateral damage.” Sometimes, however, mistakes are made.

Lecture 14 Immunodeficiency, 126

Serious disease may result when our immune system does not operate at full strength. Humans who are infected with the AIDS virus have profoundly impaired immune systems.

Lecture 15 Cancer and the Immune System, 131

The human immune system is not very good at defending us against cancer. Indeed, there is a built-in conflict between the need to minimize the chance that its weapons will attack our own bodies, and the need to destroy wannabe cancer cells.

Glossary, 139

Here are definitions of some of the terms that immunologists use – but which “normal” people wouldn’t.

List of Acronyms and Abbreviations, 142

Immunologists are big on acronyms and abbreviations, so I’ve made a list to which you can refer.

Index, 143

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“How the Immune System Works remains uniquely popular for its personable and practical overview of the nuts and bolts of the immune system. This third edition provides a perfect introduction to the essential principles of the immune system, covered in humorous but highly informative 'lectures' accompanied by clear and accessible illustrations. It is perfect for exam preparation or as an enjoyable overview of a difficult subject. Both students and instructors will welcome the clarity and authority that Lauren Sompayrac brings to this timely revision. The conversational writing style makes it seem as though the author is talking to the reader directly. There is no other book currently available quite like this one. Those of our students who have discovered the book have recommended it to others. When completing course evaluations, a substantial number have commented on how helpful it was.” (Doody's Book Reviews, October 2008)

Preface

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK

I wrote How the Immune System Works because I couldn't find a book that would give my students an overall view of the immune system. Sure, there are as many good, thick textbooks as a person might have money to buy, but these are crammed with every possible detail. There are also lots of 'review books' that are great if you want a summary of what you've already learned -- but they won't teach you immunology. What was missing was a short book that tells, in simple language, how the immune system fits together -- a book that presents the big picture of the immune system without the jargon and the details.

How the Immune System Works is written in the form of 'lectures,' because I want to talk to you directly, just as if we were together in the classroom. This book is short, so you should be able to finish it in a few days. In fact, I strongly suggest that you sit down with this little book and read it from start to finish. The whole idea is to get an overall view of the subject, and if you read one lecture a week, that won't happen. Don't 'study' the book the first time through -- just read it and enjoy. Later you can go back and re-read the appropriate lectures as your immunology course progresses -- to keep you from losing sight of the big picture as the details get filled in.

Although the first lecture is a light-hearted overview meant to give you a running start at the subject, you'll soon discover that this is not 'baby immunology.' How the Immune System Works is a concept-driven analysis of how the immune system players work together to protect us from disease -- and why they do it this way.

In some settings, How the Immune System Works will serve as the main text for the immunology section of a larger course. In a semester-long undergraduate or graduate immunology course, your professor may use this book either as a companion to a detailed text or as the central text, supplemented by additional readings.

No matter how your professor may choose to use this book, however, you should keep one important point in mind: I didn't write How the Immune System Works for your professor. This book's for you!

Editorial Reviews

3 Stars from Doody

This book is a description of the overall basic rules by which the immune system protects us from disease. It attempts to put rather complicated concepts into a simple—but not simplistic—""big picture"" and is intended to be used either as a freestanding introduction to immunology or as a companion to other texts. The purpose is to provide students with an overall view of the immune system. The author felt that a short book that tells how the various parts of the immune system fit together in a style free of jargon and details was needed. Many students who have taken immunology would agree that their texts generally do not fit this description and that most books do not take such a determined integrated approach. For some students this is an excellent introduction to a very complicated topic. The author suggests that this book could be useful for both undergraduate and graduate students who are being introduced to immunology. Another audience could be medical and dental students who are studying immunology for the first time and need an uncomplicated approach by which they can assimilate a lot of data very quickly. This latter group of students is usually being deluged with a lot of information by different instructors, and a significant number of these neophytes are confused. The author has presented the ""big picture"" for students who may need some extra help in focusing on basic concepts. He is a retired professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder. This book suggests that he has had considerable experience in teaching. This short book is written as if the author is talking personally to each student. About 80 percent of it is focused on basic immunologicalconcepts. The remaining 20 percent deals with immunopathology. This section provides only a very bare outline of the role of the immune system in disease. There is a glossary of important terms presented in a nontechnical manner. The primary shortcoming is the lack of detail that would make it a suitable text for a basic course in immunology. However, this lack of detail is also its major strength, since it provides a context in which students can add more of the specific details of the immune system after they have become comfortable with the elementary information. There is a lack of textbooks that provide an easily understood overview of the very complicated field of immunology. For those students who are lost in confusing theories and arcane terminology, this book may provide comforting assistance. Students are often unable to articulate their problems with immunological concepts. Although this text does not provide sufficient data for a student to become familiar with many important—and still basic—details, it does provide a starting point for understanding as well as for asking meaningful questions.

Marion C. Cohen

Reviewer: Marion C. Cohen, PhD (SUNY Downstate Medical Center)
Description: This book is a description of the overall basic rules by which the immune system protects us from disease. It attempts to put rather complicated concepts into a simple — but not simplistic — "big picture" and is intended to be used either as a freestanding introduction to immunology or as a companion to other texts.
Purpose: The purpose is to provide students with an overall view of the immune system. The author felt that a short book that tells how the various parts of the immune system fit together in a style free of jargon and details was needed. Many students who have taken immunology would agree that their texts generally do not fit this description and that most books do not take such a determined integrated approach. For some students this is an excellent introduction to a very complicated topic.
Audience: The author suggests that this book could be useful for both undergraduate and graduate students who are being introduced to immunology. Another audience could be medical and dental students who are studying immunology for the first time and need an uncomplicated approach by which they can assimilate a lot of data very quickly. This latter group of students is usually being deluged with a lot of information by different instructors, and a significant number of these neophytes are confused. The author has presented the "big picture" for students who may need some extra help in focusing on basic concepts. He is a retired professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder. This book suggests that he has had considerable experience in teaching.
Features: This short book is written as if the author is talking personally to each student. About 80 percent of it is focused on basic immunological concepts. The remaining 20 percent deals with immunopathology. This section provides only a very bare outline of the role of the immune system in disease. There is a glossary of important terms presented in a nontechnical manner. The primary shortcoming is the lack of detail that would make it a suitable text for a basic course in immunology. However, this lack of detail is also its major strength, since it provides a context in which students can add more of the specific details of the immune system after they have become comfortable with the elementary information.
Assessment: There is a lack of textbooks that provide an easily understood overview of the very complicated field of immunology. For those students who are lost in confusing theories and arcane terminology, this book may provide comforting assistance. Students are often unable to articulate their problems with immunological concepts. Although this text does not provide sufficient data for a student to become familiar with many important — and still basic — details, it does provide a starting point for understanding as well as for asking meaningful questions.

Doody's Review Service