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Previous Volume 357:1345-1346 September 27, 2007 Number 13 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

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Viruses, like many microbes, have complex and diverse relationships with the immune system. We need to kill or control viruses to survive as a species, but under special circumstances, we could make use of them to obtain a level of protection against unrelated microbes, as was recently described by Barton and colleagues.¹

The immune system is traditionally seen as a unique and highly specific system for recognition of foreign proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates. Antibody responses are exquisitely specific. In medicine, we take advantage of this high degree of specificity when we use monoclonal antibodies to treat autoimmune disorders and cancers. . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Source Information

From the Department of Pathology and Immunology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis.

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