Basics of Immunology

About Book

It gives me immense pleasure to present this book entitled ‘Basics of Immunology’ to the learners of immunology containing updated knowledge of the topic. Immunology is a very vast subject, interesting but sometimes frustrating when not understood properly. It is our earnest hope that style of presentation will definitely bring pleasure and comprehension to our many readers at the undergraduate, postgraduate, and clinical stages of their studies. The language is consistent, interesting, and easy to understand. It is unique in the sense that a no of concepts especially crucial to the students to understand in other foreign and Indian books on the topic have been presented in a way so that they can easily grasp with firm understanding without any confusion. Figures summarize important ideas and presented in such a way so that along with written text, the concepts are nicely conveyable to the readers. In order to visualize the complex relationship of immune system components, iconic depictions are consistently given throughout the book, in the form of tables and figures. Explanation of antigen presentation expanded discussion on MHCs and cytokines, and inflammation has been nicely explained. Expanded coverage of infection and diseases, AIDS, Autoimmune diseases, Hypersensitivity reactions, has also been done. Especial focus has been given on signalling pathways leading to maturity, differentiation, and activation of a variety of cell types. Chapter 1- Introduction part, sheds light on the concept of immunology, its historical perspective including changes undergone in the last few decades, and a broad classification of immunology with the deliberate explanation of various components of the immune system. Extensive coverage of the innate immune system its various components including a variety of defense cells, mechanistic aspects, and its interaction with adaptive immune response has been done in chapter 2. Similarly, chapter 3 concerns a great expansion of knowledge on adaptive immune response including various cell types T and B cells, their growth and differentiation, MHC class molecules, cluster differentiation factors, mechanistic aspects of humoral and cell-mediated immunity, etc. Chapter 4 focuses on the clinical aspects of immunology including disorders of lymphoid and myeloid cell lineage, hypersensitivity reactions, and AIDS. Autoimmune diseases their concept, types their utility are deliberately presented in chapter 5. The scope of immunology in medicine has been comprehensively discussed in chapter 6. In this segment, a comprehensive discussion has been done on vaccination and organ transplant, and HLA typing. Chapter 7 deals with various aspects of cancer immunology with a special focus on chimeric antigen receptor-T cells. In chapter 8 various Immunological techniques broadly cover the experimental protocols to investigate the immune system as well as the procedures of creating and utilizing immunological materials as the experimental tools. Chapter 9 is dealing with various aspects of stem cell applications and therapeutics. With all these aforesaid contents, I hope that style of presentation will definitely bring pleasure and proper understanding to our many readers at the undergraduate, graduate, and clinical stage of their studies. Thanks.