Immunomodulation

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The process of adjusting immune system activity includes both the enhancement and suppression of immune responses while modifying the interaction of various components involved in immunity
2. This refers to the intervention that alters immune function, affecting how the body defends against pathogens and responds to treatments
3. The act of modifying immune responses encompasses enhancing or inhibiting immune activity and involves changes in the interactions among bodily immune components

Etymology: Immunomodulation is a modern scientific compound, assembled from two parts that each took their own route into English. The first, "immuno-", comes from the Latin "immunis", meaning exempt or free from obligation, which in Latin was built from "in-" (not) and "munus" (duty, service, or burden). That sense of being exempt from public duties passed through Middle French "immun" into Middle English as "immune," and only later, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, did it come to describe bodily resistance to disease. The "-o-" linking element was borrowed from Ancient Greek, and the combining form "immuno-" was built on it in English. The second part, "modulation," comes from Latin "modulatio," a noun for measuring or regulating, and it was originally a term for the sound and rhythm of music. Its later sense of adjusting or varying something in a controlled way grew out of that musical meaning. Put together, the compound describes regulating the body's defences: turning the immune response up, down, or sideways rather than simply switching it on or off.