The preliminary evidence for the involvement of complement in promoting primary humoral responses dates back over a quarter of a century. However, it is only in the course of the past decade or so that the detailed mechanisms underlying complement's influence have been characterized in depth. It is now clear that complement serves as a regulator of several B cell functions, including specific a...

Despite high vaccine coverage, pertussis has re-emerged as a public health concern in many countries. One hypothesis posed for re-emergence is the waning of immunity. In some disease systems, the process of waning immunity can be non-linear, involving a complex relationship between the duration of immunity and subsequent boosting of immunity through asymptomatic re-exposure. We present and anal...

Immune defenses provide resistance against infectious disease that is critical to survival. But immune defenses are costly, and limited resources allocated to immunity are not available for other physiological or developmental processes. We propose a framework for explaining variation in patterns of investment in two important subsystems of anti-pathogen defense: innate (non-specific) and acqui...

There is a wide variety of resistance mechanisms that hosts may evolve in response to their parasites. These can be functionally classified as avoidance (lower probability of becoming infected), recovery (faster rate of clearance), tolerance (reduced death rate when infected), or acquired immunity. It is commonly thought that longer lived organisms should invest more in costly resistance. We sh...

Based on experiments showing immunomodulatory effects of garlic (Allium sativum L.), we sought to see whether Allium hirtifolim Boiss., belonging to the same genus of garlic, has any effect on immune responses. Hydroalcoholic extract and polyphenolic fraction of A. hirtifolium bulbs were prepared. Allicin (diallyl thiosulfinate), a biologically active component, was identified in plant bulbs...

Based on experiments showing immunomodulatory effects of garlic (Allium sativum L.), we sought to see whether Allium hirtifolim Boiss., belonging to the same genus of garlic, has any effect on immune responses. Hydroalcoholic extract and polyphenolic fraction of A. hirtifolium bulbs were prepared. Allicin (diallyl thiosulfinate), a biologically active component, was identified in plant bulbs...