When the immune system attacks the wrong target.
9 topics · 9 curated works
No prior grounding assumed.
How The Immune System ACTUALLY Works
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell · 2021
Follows a single infection through the innate and adaptive responses in order, showing that the immune system's difficulty is identification rather…
Assumes you know the vocabulary.
Agammaglobulinemia
Ogden C. Bruton · 1952
Describes the first recognised primary immunodeficiency — a boy who made no antibodies at all — and treats it successfully with replacement gamma…
+2 more at this level
Primary sources and full treatments.
The Nature and Treatment of Gout and Rheumatic Gout
Alfred Baring Garrod · 1859
Establishes excess uric acid in the blood as the cause of gout, using a simple chemical test on patients' blood that let the disease be diagnosed…
+4 more at this level
9 works
Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell
Follows a single infection through the innate and adaptive responses in order, showing that the immune system's difficulty is identification rather than killing.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Ogden C. Bruton
Describes the first recognised primary immunodeficiency — a boy who made no antibodies at all — and treats it successfully with replacement gamma globulin.
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence
Argues for a treat-to-target strategy in rheumatoid arthritis, escalating disease-modifying drugs on a fixed schedule against measured disease activity rather than waiting for visible joint damage.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Antonis Fanouriakis et al.
Recommends treating lupus to a target of remission or low disease activity with hydroxychloroquine as background therapy for nearly everyone, and minimising long-term glucocorticoid exposure wherever the disease allows it.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Alfred Baring Garrod
Establishes excess uric acid in the blood as the cause of gout, using a simple chemical test on patients' blood that let the disease be diagnosed rather than merely described.
link checked 17 Sept 2026Kimishige Ishizaka & Teruko Ishizaka
Identifies a previously unrecognised antibody class, later named IgE, as the mediator of immediate allergic reactions, giving allergy a molecular mechanism rather than a purely clinical description.
Elliott et al.
Reports that blocking a single cytokine, TNF-alpha, produces rapid clinical improvement in rheumatoid arthritis, the trial that opened the biologic-drug era in rheumatology.
Rudwaleit et al.
Builds classification criteria for axial spondyloarthritis around imaging and HLA-B27 status rather than the radiographic sacroiliitis required by older criteria, so patients can be identified years before joint damage is visible on X-ray.
Jennette et al.
Replaces eponymous, inconsistently applied vasculitis names with definitions built on vessel size and pathogenic mechanism, arguing that classification should follow disease biology rather than the physician who first described it.
link checked 17 Sept 2026