Definition and research guide
This page combines a MeSH definition, publication statistics and selected research abstracts. It is a starting point for reading the literature, not a medical textbook or a systematic evidence review.
Content available: 3 complete abstracts (567 words), 9 references. Full article text is not stored or reproduced here; follow the PMID, DOI or PMC links to read the original sources and their access terms.
Definition
Nonsusceptibility to the invasive or pathogenic effects of foreign microorganisms or to the toxic effect of antigenic substances.
Definition: NLM Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) scope note (Public domain (U.S. National Library of Medicine); attribution requested). View the MeSH record.
Also known as: Immune Response; Immune Responses; Response, Immune; Immune Process; Immune Processes; Process, Immune.
Where it fits in the MeSH classification
- Broader topics
- Immune System Phenomena
- Narrower topics
- Adaptive Immunity; Autoimmunity; Cross Protection; Immunity, Herd; Immunity, Heterologous; Immunity, Innate; Immunity, Maternally-Acquired; Immunity, Mucosal; Plant Immunity; Sterilizing Immunity; T-Cell Antigen Receptor Specificity
- See also
- Immunologic Techniques; Tumor Escape
Research landscape
PubMed indexes 456,674 records tagged with the MeSH heading “Immunity” (counts retrieved 2026-10-29). 74,159 of them (16.2%) were published from 2020 onward, and the busiest period so far is through 1999 with 192,204 records.
Reviews account for 76,816 records (16.8%) and meta-analyses for 486. Randomized controlled trials number 3,850 (0.8%) as a share of all records on the topic. Randomized trials make up only a small share of this literature, so much of what is known comes from laboratory, observational or descriptive work.
Show the data
| Period | Records |
|---|---|
| through 1999 | 192,204 |
| 2000-2009 | 78,164 |
| 2010-2019 | 112,147 |
| 2020 onward | 74,159 |
Publication-type chart data
| Type | Records | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Reviews | 76,816 | 16.8% |
| Meta-analyses | 486 | 0.1% |
| Randomized controlled trials | 3,850 | 0.8% |
Method: PubMed query "Immunity"[MeSH Terms] with publication-type and date filters, retrieved 2026-10-29.
Reading the evidence in immunology
Immune responses are studied in model organisms, in cells from donors and in patients, and the same pathway can behave differently across these settings. Mouse immune systems differ from human ones in important ways, and blood measurements may not reflect what happens in tissues. Clinical conclusions about immune-mediated disease or immunotherapy come mainly from controlled trials and long-term cohorts. Check the species and tissue studied, whether markers were linked to outcomes patients notice, and the follow-up time.
Evidence from open-access studies
These open-access studies come from PubMed’s best-match results for this heading (papers whose main topic it is), ranked here by citation count, with one recent addition. Each abstract is reproduced in full under its recorded open licence so that you can read the authors’ own words. They illustrate the literature; they are not a systematic summary of it. Citation counts measure attention, not reliability or clinical benefit.
| Study / authors | Year | Source label / design | Europe PMC citations | Licence / source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Innate immune imprints shape HIV-1 reservoir cell persistence during long-term antiretroviral therapy | 2026 | Research article Design not recorded in structured metadata | 2 | cc by PMID 42680897 · DOI · PMC13630574 |
| Thymic selection of the T cell receptor repertoire is biased toward autoimmunity in females | 2026 | Research article Design not recorded in structured metadata | 2 | cc by PMID 42623268 · DOI · PMC13493126 |
| Regulation of immune signal integration and memory by inflammation-induced chromosome conformation | 2026 | Research article Design not recorded in structured metadata | 2 | cc by PMID 42743281 · DOI · PMC13598234 |
Innate immune imprints shape HIV-1 reservoir cell persistence during long-term antiretroviral therapy [1]
Abstract reading summary — source excerpts
- Opening excerpt
- Host immune responses that can target and eliminate HIV-1 reservoir cells during suppressive antiretroviral therapy are poorly understood.
- Closing excerpt
- These findings underscore the critical influence of host and viral genetic variation on reservoir persistence and highlight opportunities for leveraging innate immunity in HIV cure strategies.
- Interpretation limits
- Verbatim excerpts from the authors’ abstract; the closing excerpt may describe a finding, limitation or recommendation. Design, population, effect size and uncertainty have not been independently extracted or appraised. Read the complete abstract and linked paper before interpreting the findings.
Read complete abstract (210 words)
Host immune responses that can target and eliminate HIV-1 reservoir cells during suppressive antiretroviral therapy are poorly understood. Here, analyzing over 6,000 proviral DNA amplicons from 104 individuals on long-term antiretroviral therapy, we found that carriers of HLA-C2 allotypes, which promote NK cell education via interactions with KIR2DL1, exhibited lower frequencies of intact proviruses. No protective effects of HLA-C2 alleles were observed during untreated infection, suggesting a selective vulnerability of reservoir cells to NK-cell-mediated immune activity under antiretroviral therapy. Supporting this, frequencies of KIR2DL1+ NK cells, particularly those coexpressing the activating HLA-E receptor NKG2C, were inversely correlated with frequencies of intact proviruses. Moreover, viral protein U variants that strongly downregulate HLA-C, increasing a missing-self response by KIR2DL1+ NK cells, were associated with smaller reservoirs in carriers of HLA-C2. Infected cells surviving long-term displayed elevated HLA-C expression, consistent with in vivo selection for resistance to KIR2DL1+ NK-cell-mediated immune clearance. Immune activity of KIR2DL1+ NK cells against viral reservoir cells was enhanced by NKG2C-HLA-E interactions, as sequence variants in HLA-E-restricted HIV-1 epitopes reduced NKG2C-dependent NK cell activation and were associated with higher frequencies of intact proviruses. These findings underscore the critical influence of host and viral genetic variation on reservoir persistence and highlight opportunities for leveraging innate immunity in HIV cure strategies.
Abstract reproduced from the open-access article under the recorded cc by licence; © the authors. PMID 42680897 · DOI · PMC13630574
Thymic selection of the T cell receptor repertoire is biased toward autoimmunity in females [2]
Abstract reading summary — source excerpts
- Opening excerpt
- Women represent about 80% of patients with autoimmune diseases.
- Closing excerpt
- Our findings identify a sex-specific imbalance in thymic selection of TCRs with autoimmunity-associated specificities, providing mechanistic insight into the increased susceptibility of women to autoimmune diseases.
- Interpretation limits
- Verbatim excerpts from the authors’ abstract; the closing excerpt may describe a finding, limitation or recommendation. Design, population, effect size and uncertainty have not been independently extracted or appraised. Read the complete abstract and linked paper before interpreting the findings.
Read complete abstract (200 words)
Women represent about 80% of patients with autoimmune diseases. This may partly result from sex-based differences in T cell receptor (TCR) selection during thymocyte development, potentially influenced by hormones and the lower expression of the Autoimmune Regulator (AIRE) transcription factor in females. To investigate this, we analyzed sex-specific differences in TCR generation and selection. We examined TCR repertoires in double-positive thymocytes and single-positive thymic cells, including CD8+ and CD4+ effector T cells and regulatory T cells (Tregs), derived from male and female organ donors. Minimal sex-based differences were observed in V and J gene usage, and there were no notable differences in TCR repertoire diversity, complementarity-determining region 3 (CDR3) length, amino acid composition, or network structure. No TCR sequences were exclusive to either sex. However, female effector T cells exhibited a significantly higher prevalence of TCRs specific to self-antigens implicated in autoimmunity compared to males, while female Tregs showed a reduced frequency of such TCRs. These differences were not observed for TCRs targeting self-antigens unrelated to autoimmunity or antigens associated with cancer or viruses. Our findings identify a sex-specific imbalance in thymic selection of TCRs with autoimmunity-associated specificities, providing mechanistic insight into the increased susceptibility of women to autoimmune diseases.
Abstract reproduced from the open-access article under the recorded cc by licence; © the authors. PMID 42623268 · DOI · PMC13493126
Regulation of immune signal integration and memory by inflammation-induced chromosome conformation [3]
Abstract reading summary — source excerpts
- Opening excerpt
- Three-dimensional (3D) genome conformation is central to gene expression regulation, yet our understanding of its contribution to rapid transcriptional responses, signal integration, and memory in immune cells is limited.
- Closing excerpt
- Collectively, these findings demonstrate that rapid and memory transcriptional responses to immunological stimuli are encoded in the 3D genome.
- Interpretation limits
- Verbatim excerpts from the authors’ abstract; the closing excerpt may describe a finding, limitation or recommendation. Design, population, effect size and uncertainty have not been independently extracted or appraised. Read the complete abstract and linked paper before interpreting the findings.
Read complete abstract (157 words)
Three-dimensional (3D) genome conformation is central to gene expression regulation, yet our understanding of its contribution to rapid transcriptional responses, signal integration, and memory in immune cells is limited. Here, we study the molecular regulation of the inflammatory response in primary macrophages using integrated transcriptomic, epigenomic, and chromosome conformation data, including base pair-resolution Micro Capture-C. We demonstrate that interleukin-4 (IL-4) primes the inflammatory response in macrophages by stably rewiring 3D genome conformation, juxtaposing endotoxin-, interferon-gamma-, and dexamethasone-responsive enhancers to their cognate gene promoters. CRISPR-based perturbations of enhancer-promoter contacts or CCCTC-binding factor (CTCF) boundary elements show that IL-4-driven conformation changes are required for enhanced and synergistic endotoxin-induced transcriptional responses, as well as transcriptional memory following stimulus removal. Moreover, transcriptional memory mediated by changes in chromosome conformation can occur in the absence of changes in chromatin accessibility or histone modifications. Collectively, these findings demonstrate that rapid and memory transcriptional responses to immunological stimuli are encoded in the 3D genome.
Abstract reproduced from the open-access article under the recorded cc by licence; © the authors. PMID 42743281 · DOI · PMC13598234
Key reviews and meta-analyses
The most cited review-type papers among PubMed’s best-match results for this heading, listed with bibliographic details only. Follow the links for the full text and access terms.
- Research article Genetic meta-analysis of diagnosed Alzheimer's disease identifies new risk loci and implicates Aβ, tau, immunity and lipid processing [4]
- Research article Stress and immunity in humans: a meta-analytic review [5]
- Research article Immune-related adverse events for anti-PD-1 and anti-PD-L1 drugs: systematic review and meta-analysis [6]
- Research article Cross-protective efficacy of two human papillomavirus vaccines: a systematic review and meta-analysis [7]
- Research article Population-level impact, herd immunity, and elimination after human papillomavirus vaccination: a systematic review and meta-analysis of predictions from transmission-dynamic models [8]
- Research article The Impact of Obesity on Thyroid Autoimmunity and Dysfunction: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis [9]
References
- Tan TS, Sun W, Gao C, Viard M, Walters LC, Lancien M, et al.. Innate immune imprints shape HIV-1 reservoir cell persistence during long-term antiretroviral therapy. . 2026. PMID 42680897 · DOI · PMC13630574
- Vantomme H, Quiniou V, Adda L, Jouannet C, Mhanna V, Albalaa C, et al.. Thymic selection of the T cell receptor repertoire is biased toward autoimmunity in females. . 2026. PMID 42623268 · DOI · PMC13493126
- Daniel B, Chen AY, Sandor K, Zhang W, Miao Z, Yost KE, et al.. Regulation of immune signal integration and memory by inflammation-induced chromosome conformation. . 2026. PMID 42743281 · DOI · PMC13598234
- Kunkle BW, Grenier-Boley B, Sims R, Bis JC, Damotte V, Naj AC, et al.. Genetic meta-analysis of diagnosed Alzheimer's disease identifies new risk loci and implicates Aβ, tau, immunity and lipid processing. Nat Genet. 2019. PMID 30820047 · DOI · PMC6463297
- Herbert TB, Cohen S. Stress and immunity in humans: a meta-analytic review. Psychosom Med. 1993. PMID 8416086 · DOI
- Baxi S, Yang A, Gennarelli RL, Khan N, Wang Z, Boyce L, et al.. Immune-related adverse events for anti-PD-1 and anti-PD-L1 drugs: systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ. 2018. PMID 29540345 · DOI · PMC5851471
- Malagón T, Drolet M, Boily MC, Franco EL, Jit M, Brisson J, et al.. Cross-protective efficacy of two human papillomavirus vaccines: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet Infect Dis. 2012. PMID 22920953 · DOI
- Brisson M, Bénard É, Drolet M, Bogaards JA, Baussano I, Vänskä S, et al.. Population-level impact, herd immunity, and elimination after human papillomavirus vaccination: a systematic review and meta-analysis of predictions from transmission-dynamic models. Lancet Public Health. 2016. PMID 29253379 · DOI · PMC6727207
- Song RH, Wang B, Yao QM, Li Q, Jia X, Zhang JA. The Impact of Obesity on Thyroid Autoimmunity and Dysfunction: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Front Immunol. 2019. PMID 31681268 · DOI · PMC6797838
About this article
- Sources
- NLM Medical Subject Headings (definition, synonyms); NCBI PubMed (counts, identifiers); Europe PMC (open-access abstracts and citation counts).
- Verification
- Every reference was resolved against PubMed on 2026-10-31; title, year and DOI matched.
- Review state
- automated source verified; no human expert review has been recorded yet.
- Version
- 1, last updated 2026-10-29.
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Evidence strength
EvidenceHelix's computed view of the study designs behind this topic: how common meta-analyses, randomized trials and reviews are, how recent the literature is, and a plain-language reading. It describes the design mix of the literature. It is not a quality appraisal of any study, and it is not medical advice.