Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: EC:3.5.4.4 (adenosine deaminase)
 5,136 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

"Immune regulation: what immunodeficiency disease has taught us" is reviewed by discussing three immuno-deficiency disorders. Hypogammaglobulinemia, the first documented primary immunodeficiency disorder, has a well defined and uniform clinical presentation which reflects a variety of underlying abnormalities involving the B cell, T cell, and monocyte. X-linked hypogammaglobulinemia, transient hypogammaglobulinemia of infancy common variable immunodeficiency, and their pathogenesis are discussed. Combined immunodeficiency with adenosine deaminase (ADA) deficiency first led to the now accepted concept that a biochemical abnormality may result in immunodeficiency. The clinical presentation, possible biochemical abnormalities resulting in the observed immunodeficiency, relative selectivity of the defect for the immune system, and potential applications of knowledge gained from the study of ADA deficiency are presented. Acquired immunodeficiency (AIDS) has resulted in the concept that a virus is cytopathic for a specific population of T cells and that this, at least in part, results in the immunodeficiency seen in AIDS.
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PMID:Immune regulation: what immunodeficiency disease has taught us. 298 76

There are two ways to find the cause of primary immunodeficiency diseases. One approach is to start with the immune defect and work backwards, using in vitro techniques to define where the primary abnormality lies in the immune response. Immunologists favour this approach for obvious reasons; and it is not without virtue since, for example, it has shown that the defect in most cases of primary hypogammaglobulinaemia is due to a failure of B lymphocyte maturation. The alternative approach is to screen empirically for defects in biochemical pathways in the hope of finding a clue which will eventually lead to the underlying disorder. This is a sensible approach in diseases which are clearly inherited (e.g. X-linked hypogammaglobulinaemia) but is less attractive in a disease such as late onset hypogammaglobulinaemia which is not obviously inherited. In practice, such procedures involve screening the urine for abnormalities in the quality or quantity of excreted compounds. Another way is to screen for abnormalities in organelle integrity by measuring the activity of various enzymes in subcellular fractions. In reality, the clue to the metabolic defect is usually discovered by accident, the prime example in our field being the discovery of adenosine deaminase (ADA) deficiency.
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PMID:Metabolic defects in immunodeficiency diseases. 629 Jan 13