Four Seasons Pharmacist says | The hard truth of balancing immunity, let’s talk about immunosuppressants

Spring returns to the earth, the yang energy rises, and everything revives. However, it is still cold at this time, and various pathogenic microorganisms such as bacteria and viruses are gradually active, and many diseases are very likely to occur. As a result, people began to pay attention to improving the body's immunity through balanced diet, improved lifestyle, increased exercise, and even taking some drugs such as immunopotentiators. But for patients with certain diseases, they cannot rely on immunopotentiators to fight the disease, but rely on immunosuppressants to better protect the body. Why is this? Today, Yaowa will introduce you to some immunosuppressants related to immunity, and see why it is also needed to fight diseases and balance the body's immunity.

The higher the immunity, the better?

The so-called "immunity", as the name suggests, refers to freedom from plague (in ancient times, plague referred to various epidemic diseases). The body's immune system identifies "self" and "non-self" and eliminates antigenic foreign bodies through immune response to maintain the body's physiological balance. It is like in a country, the army and the police are components of the national immune system. For the body, white blood cells are the main immune cells in the human body. So what is the role of immunity? Immunity is used for defense, and immunity is defense.

Since it is a defense, shouldn’t the higher the immunity, the better? Why do we still need to use drugs like immunosuppressants to protect us?

This is because when the human body is in a diseased state, the physiological balance of the body is broken and the immune system often goes wrong. If the immune system is too strong, it will not distinguish between friend and foe and will accidentally injure normal cells of the human body. At this time, immunosuppressants are needed to adjust immunity and maintain the physiological balance of the body.

Who are the little fighters against “civil unrest”?

So, in what disease states are immunosuppressants used? Mainly after organ transplantation and when suffering from certain autoimmune diseases, such as systemic lupus erythematosus, nephrotic syndrome, rheumatism/rheumatoid arthritis, etc. At this time, the body's own immune system will attack its own tissues, which requires the use of immunosuppressants to suppress the "riot" in the body and inhibit the immune response that is unfavorable to the body.

For example, if A's kidney is transplanted into B's body, B will reject A's kidney. After the transplant, B's immune system must be suppressed to ensure the survival of A's kidney. There is currently no way to correct this kind of erroneous immunity, it can only be suppressed.
What are the commonly used immunosuppressants?

Too dangerous to use?

While exerting its anti-immune effects, it is difficult for immunosuppressants to not destroy the stability of the body's "other environment". Once the body's immunity is suppressed, it is equivalent to the country reducing its army and police, weakening the national defense system, causing invasion by foreign invaders and "unrest" within the country, and a series of consequences, such as exogenous pathogenic microorganisms invading the body to induce or aggravate infection, liver damage, kidney damage, diabetes, bone marrow suppression, carcinogenesis, neurotoxicity, gastrointestinal reactions, etc.

So, are all immunosuppressants so harmful that people are afraid to take them? Actually, not really.

Various immunosuppressants have different mechanisms of action and adverse reactions.

Moreover, the degree of adverse reactions is related to the dosage or blood drug concentration. Even if adverse reactions occur, most of them can be relieved after stopping the drug or reducing the dosage.

Take tacrolimus as an example. The individual differences of this drug are large, the therapeutic window is narrow, and the therapeutic dose is close to the toxic dose. Too low blood drug concentration will increase rejection reaction, and too high will increase the risk of adverse reactions. Therefore, when using it, the dosing plan should be formulated according to the patient's blood drug concentration, regular follow-up visits should be made, and the dosage should be adjusted in time to strive for the best efficacy and the minimum adverse reactions.

When using immunosuppressants, you should strictly follow the doctor's instructions and never stop or reduce the dosage without authorization.