How can we check the general immune status of the body, to dicide that this immune system is strong or is weak??
Khaleel Z. K. Al-Alo Researchers can measure it through looking into the immune system components.
Arch Toxicol. 2016 Oct;90(10):2481-95. doi: 10.1007/s00204-016-1809-5. Epub 2016 Aug 13.
Measuring the immune system: a comprehensive approach for the analysis of immune functions in humans.
Article Measuring the immune system: a comprehensive approach for th...
" To investigate immune system, it is essential to analyze the different components of the immune system in a comprehensive fashion. Here, we demonstrate such an approach which provides information about total number of leukocytes, detailed quantitative and qualitative changes in the composition of lymphocyte subsets, cytokine levels in serum and functional properties of T cells, NK cells and monocytes. "
We used to check status of humoral and cell mediated immunity using whole blood cultures. We stimulated diluted heparinized blood with PHA and checked cytokines representative of the pathways after 48 hours.
The immune system is so complex and multifactorial that it is currently unfeasible to generally check the immune status of an otherwise healthy or non-immunedefficient individual ( meaning immune-defficient an individual with clear susceptibility to severe and opportunistic infctions and/or a carrier of a well defined mutation carrying immune-defficiency).
In the old days tuberculin test was a way to assess the cellular immune response against mycobacterium tuberculosis in exposed individuals and the intensity of reaction was usually associated to a more efficient control of the disease
Maria Cinta Cid Xutgla
thank you very much for your response, but I have a comment.
Don't you think that we can approach the initial evaluation for the effectiveness and activity of the immune system by evaluating the main components of the system ?? by analyze the different components of the immune system in a comprehensive fashion ??
Maria Cinta:What do you mean with "by analyze the different components of the immune system in a comprehensive fashion ?? "
Do you suggest facs analysis to determine the cell composition?
What about functionality?
Edmund Pool
This sentence I brought it from this paper :
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00204-016-1809-5
A total white blood count in the blood can give u idea of the strength of your immune system, if its high then the immune system is possibly weak.
you can check the cell mediated and humoral immune system as well using immuno- assay
Khaleel and Mary: This topic is very interesting although answers may not be as straightforward as we think. Problem is that sometimes you have a specific lymphocyte subset present, but factors such as defects/absence of various Pathogen Associated Molecular Pattern (PAMP) receptors may result in no/diminished response against a pathogen. For this reason I strongly advocate specific in vitro functional tests for a panel of pathogens (eg various inactivated viruses, mycobacteria, yeast, fungi and G +ve and -ve bacteria) to test immune status. I have tried this approach using a panel of 20 heat inactivated bacteria. The whole blood cytokine profile of individuals showed specific differences when exposed to different groups of bacteria.
I totally agreee that there is no straitghforward response to this question, nor a specific bunch of tests for standardized clinical applicability to apparently healthy people to generaly test their immune status.
The immune system is very complex and immune defficiencies a complex field as more mutations in different genes are discovered. The tests to be performed are determined by clinical findings. For instance, recurrent pneumococcus infection may suggest B cell defficiency, the most frequent being common variable immundeficincy which is supported by low immunoglobulin concentration (hypogammaglobulinemia). recurrent or severe meningococcal infction may suggest complement deficiency that can be checked by complement detection and function. Opportunistic infection by funghi, protozoan or disseminated tuberculosis may suggest T cell deficiencies
There are specific conditions where certain lab tests have been clinically validated: for instance in untreated HIV disease, T cell counts below 200 puts the individual at clear risk of opportunistic infections. In chemotherapy treated patients, neutrophil counts below 1000 puts the individual at risk of febril neutropenia or funghal infection.There are also specific serologic tests ( specific antibodies) to check appropriate/protective response after vaccination or appropriate/protective response to past infection. But there are not specific/ clinically validated tests to generally check the immune status of the general population, which is how I understood the question.
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