Infection and Autoimmunity

Autoimmune diseases are conditions where the immune system attacks the body organs instead of foreign invaders. This book deals with the various mechanisms by which infectious agents can trigger autoimmunity such as molecular mimicry and polyclonal activation. An overview is given with regard to bacteria, viruses, and parasites associated with autoimmunity, and a summary is given on classical autoimmune diseases and the infecting agents that can induce them.

• Includes completely updated and new chapters
• Brings the reader up to date and allows easy access to individual topics in one place
• Identifies infectious agents as pathogenic or protective in many autoimmune diseases

Professor Yehuda Shoenfeld is the President of the Center for Autoimmune Diseases (present), incumbent of the Laura Schwarz-Kipp Chair for Research of Autoimmune Diseases in Tel Aviv University (since 2002–Present), Emeritus Professor of the Sackler School of Medicine in Tel Aviv University and teaches medical studies and MSc and PhD students (since 1985). Prof. Shoenfeld has edited a series of textbooks entailing "The Mosaic of Autoimmunity," "Autoantibodies," "Infection and Autoimmunity," and "Diagnostic Criteria of Autoimmune Diseases" (Elsevier Pub.). He has served on 36 editorial boards and is the organizer of more than 25 international congresses on autoimmunity. He is the author of > 2000 peer-reviewed papers reported in the field of autoimmunity and internal medicine. More than 65,000 citations.

Nancy Agmon-Levin, MD is a senior lecturer at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine of the Tel-Aviv University. She is a graduate of Hadassah medical school in Jerusalem, Israel. Dr. Agmon-Levin has completed her residency in Internal Medicine and fellowship in allergy and clinical immunology at the Kaplan medical center in Israel. During the last 6 years she has worked as a senior physician and a scientist as well as the deputy head of the Zabludowicz Center for Autoimmune Diseases at the Sheba Medical Center in Israel. Dr. Agmon-Levin is the president of the Israeli association for Allergy and clinical immunology.

Dr. Agmon-Levin is active in research, training, education and patient care. She has over 100 peer reviewed publications mainly focusing on various fields of autoimmunity research, autoantibodies, roles of vitamin D, hormones and environmental factors as infectious agents and vaccines in the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases.

Noel Rose was born in Stamford, Connecticut. He attended Yale University for his undergraduate education followed by the University of Pennsylvania for a Ph.D. and State University of New York at Buffalo for an MD. He was a member of the faculty of the State University of New York at Buffalo School of Medicine for a period of 20 years, rising through the ranks to become a professor of Microbiology and Medicine, Director of Clinical Laboratories and Director of the Center for Immunology. He then spent ten years at Wayne State University School of Medicine where he chaired the Department of Immunology and Microbiology. In 1981, he joined the faculty of Johns Hopkins University as chairman of the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases. He presently holds professorial appointments in the Departments of Pathology, Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Medicine and Environmental Health Sciences at The Johns Hopkins University and directs the Center for Autoimmune Disease Research. Dr. Rose’s original investigations on the autoimmune basis of thyroid disease in 1956 opened the present era of research on autoimmunity. He has since investigated many areas of autoimmunity and related issues in clinical and basic immunology. Dr. Rose is the author or co-author of over 800 scientific papers and editor or co-editor of 24 books. He has received numerous honors, including two honorary doctoral degrees, election to fellowship in national or international societies, service in national and international organizations and editorial boards of leading journals.