Common Clinical Terms

Agglutinins are natural plant carbohydrates that protect the plant from environmental insults, such as bacteria, fungi and insects.

A type of protein produced by the immune system that protects the body from outside substances which the body recognizes as alien such as bacteria, viruses, and foreign substances/ antigens in the bloodstream.

Any structural substance which serves as a target for the receptors of an adaptive immune response. For example, dietary proteins, environmental molecules, chemical molecules. Protein structures than can elicit an immune response.

Clinical term used for hole/damage to the intestinal barrier's epithelial cells and/or tight junctions.

Any one of a group of proteins in cell membranes that allow the passage of water across the membrane. Aquaporin is found in the astrocytic foot process on the nervous system side of the blood-brain barrier. Aquaporins balance water transport across the blood-brain barrier.

An autoantibody is an antibody (a type of protein) produced by the immune system that is directed against one or more of the individual's self-tissues. Many autoimmune diseases are caused by such autoantibodies.

A self-tissue protein that becomes the target of an immune attack, which, if not addressed, can result in an autoimmune disease.

Commensalism: A symbiotic relationship between two organisms of different species in which one derives some benefit while the other is unaffected. Bacterial Toxins: Lipopolysaccharides used by gram-negative bacteria to protect them from gram-positive bacteria in the gut.

Cross-Reactivity occurs when an antibody programmed to recognize a specific antigen (for example milk) mistakes another protein (for example brain tissue) as milk and tags the tissue for attack by other immune cells, resulting in autoimmunity against the tissue.