Diseases of Immunity: Immune-Mediated Disorders

This course contains the use of artificial intelligence.

Why do some bodies attack themselves, fail to defend against ordinary microbes, or react violently to harmless pollens? The immune system is one of medicine's most powerful and most dangerous biological networks, and when it misfires the consequences range from a stubborn rash to life-threatening anaphylaxis, organ failure, or fatal infection. This course gives you a rigorous, clinically grounded tour of immune-mediated disease, translating dense immunology into the recognizable syndromes you will encounter on the wards, in pathology, and on board examinations.

You will begin with a focused review of the normal immune response, covering innate and adaptive immunity, antigen presentation through the MHC system, T and B cell activation, immunological memory, and the cytokine networks that coordinate every immune reaction. From there you will walk through the four classical Gell and Coombs hypersensitivity reactions, mastering IgE-mediated allergy and anaphylaxis, antibody-mediated cytotoxicity, immune complex disease, and delayed cell-mediated reactions including granulomatous inflammation. You will study self-tolerance and its breakdown, then dissect systemic autoimmune diseases such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and systemic sclerosis alongside organ-specific disorders including Type 1 diabetes, Hashimoto thyroiditis, multiple sclerosis, and myasthenia gravis.

The course then explores primary immunodeficiencies including SCID, DiGeorge syndrome, Bruton agammaglobulinemia, and common variable immunodeficiency, before tackling HIV pathogenesis and the AIDS-defining illnesses that mark immune collapse. You will examine transplant immunology including hyperacute, acute, and chronic rejection, graft-versus-host disease, and the major immunosuppressive drug classes used in clinical practice. The course closes with amyloidosis as an immune-related systemic disease, tying together the unifying themes of immune-mediated pathology.

Designed for medical, pathology, and immunology students as well as clinicians who want a comprehensive refresher, this course turns intimidating immunopathology into clear, memorable mechanisms you can apply at the bedside. Enroll now and build the durable mental framework you need to reason through any immune-mediated disease with confidence.