The immune system is our natural defense apparatus; sophisticated and complex, it is a collection of organs, cells, and chemical mediators with the task of protecting the body from attacks by pathogens that can cause disease or damage.

It includes both rapid-response defensive strategies (innate immunity and inflammation) and mechanisms equipped with more sophisticated but slower-acting weapons (adaptive immunity).

In some cases, the immune system can also make mistakes and attack our own organs, causing autoimmune diseases, or strike against harmless targets such as pollen or cat hair, causing allergies; it can even become dormant or assist the “enemy,” as occurs in tumors.

Today, however, we are able to train the immune system not only with vaccines but also by blocking inflammatory cytokines and removing the brakes that inhibit the immune response, such as against tumors—a recent approach employed in cancer immunotherapy.