Annals of Clinical Trials and Vaccines Research

Immunotoxicology Journals

Immunotoxicology is the immune system dysfunction due to an organism 's exposure to extrinsic factors. After exposure to a diverse group of xenobiotics including chemical pollutants, recreational drugs, ultraviolet radiation and therapeutics, the immune system is a target. The relationship between suppression of the immune response and reduced resistance to infections is well-established cause and effect. Xenobiotic exposure can boost immune function. Xenobiotics may act as allergens and elicit responses to hypersensitivity, or they may modulate responses to hypersensitivity to other allergens. Immune dysfunction may take the form of immunosuppression or, alternatively, allergy or autoimmunity or any number of diseases based on inflammation. Immunotoxicity can be considered one of several distinct immunopathologies which includes allergic disease, immunodeficiency and autoimmunity. In immunopathologies, the immune system responds to the agent as a low (hapten) or high molecular weight allergen resulting in allergic contact dermatitis, food hypersensitivity, or hyper-sensitivity to the respiratory. In immunodeficiency, the immune system acts as a passive target for the agent and this can lead to increased infectious disease incidence or severity. Autoimmunity that is a breakdown in self-tolerance occurs when an agent directly or indirectly induces an immune response to autologous constituents leading to pathological effects. Since the immune system plays a critical role in the host disease resistance as well as in an organism 's normal homeostasis, the identification of immunotoxic risk is important for the protection of human , animal and wildlife health.

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