Autoimmune and Allergic Diseases (U00707)

? Credit Points : 10 ? SCQF Level : 10 ? Acronym : BIO-4-IMaiad

Autoimmune and allergic diseases are of increasing prevalence and are a major cause of morbidity and mortality in western populations. They result from the central dilemma that faces the immune system - how to provide effective defence against invading pathogens whilst avoiding the unwanted activation of self-reactive T and B cells. This is achieved by two major mechanisms - central tolerance, involving deletion of self-reactive lymphocytes and peripheral tolerance, involving self-unresponsiveness (anergy) and the activity of regulatory cells. The failure of these mechanisms can result in a response to self (autoimmunity) or to innocuous non-self antigens such as food (allergy).

In this course we shall develop an understanding of the pathways leading to these diseases. Firstly we shall study the mechanisms of tolerance in more detail and investigate how autoreactive T cells can avoid tolerance. We shall then discuss how these cells can be initially triggered by self or cross-reactive non-self antigens and the pathways that propagate the established disease process. Finally we shall assess the current approaches being developed to treat these diseases by re-imposing tolerance.

We shall draw on various fundamental aspects of immunology - the role of MHC, antigen processing and presentation, the role of costimulation in the immune response, cytokines, etc. Therefore the core immunology course will be required for this course. The course will involve a mixture of lectures and problem-based learning with an emphasis on discussion of the controversial aspects of the subject.

Entry Requirements

? Pre-requisites : Immunology 3; At least one other appropriate third year course; Medical Microbiology 3 and Molecular Cell Biology are recommended. Immunobiology (U00703) is a pre-requisite for this course.