Word: suppressor
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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When victory over the virus is achieved, the wildly accelerating responses of the immune system slow, then shut down. Scientists believe that still other immune specialists, known as suppressor T cells, call off the battle. As the carnage wanes, the B cells and T cells perform a last, vastly important task: they form memory cells that circulate in the bloodstream and lymph system for many years, primed to spring into action should the same strain of flu virus ever attack again. In addition, the body is protected by specialized antibodies, strategically deployed in mucus, saliva and tears, that immediately recognize...
Enter cyclosporine. Discovered in 1970 by a scientist at Sandoz, a Swiss pharmaceutical company, the drug was nearly abandoned as worthless. Unexpectedly, however, researchers found that it was a highly selective suppressor of helper T cells. By preventing the activation of the T cells, the drug interferes with the body's instinct to attack a transplanted organ. Yet unlike other suppressants, it does not affect other parts of the immune system. Cyclosporine is thus able to dampen the rejection reaction while leaving a large part of the body's infection-fighting defenses intact...
Almost every industry group is touting nutrition. The Washington Apple Commission, a growers' organization based in Wenatchee, calls its fruit the "original health food" and asserts that the natural fiber in apples is an appetite suppressor. The Potato Board is pushing its vegetable as "multivitamins with minerals." Even the Sugar Association has something positive to stress: the sweetener's low 16 calories a teaspoon and its placement on the Food and Drug Administration's "safe" list, a claim artificial alternatives cannot make. "Which would you rather put on your kids' cereal...
...most software is expensive (at least $100) and should only be given to people who have expressed a specific need. Computer users tend to prefer one software package over another, and it's best to ask before buying. While it is possible to buy someone any brand of surge suppressor, the Happy Hacker does not recommend giving just any spelling checker or database program without first checking on the user's needs and preferences...
...drug, which is responsible for much of the recent progress in organ transplantation, is a potent suppressor of the immune system and is particularly effective at inhibiting the rejection of foreign organs. On the surface, cyclosporine (trade name: Sandimmun) would seem to be the last drug one would prescribe for AIDS patients, whose immune systems are already critically depressed. Indeed, an early theory about the cause of AIDS held that it was triggered by a cyclosporine-like substance produced by an infectious fungus...