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Autoimmune Disease Mechanism

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Autoimmune disease occurs when adaptive immune receptors, per Bio 3275, mistakenly target the body's own structures as foreign antigens.

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Self-reactive lymphocytes that escape normal elimination can persist and attack the body's own tissue.

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Autoimmunity is the immune system attacking the body's own tissue; immunodeficiency is its failure to attack anything. Students routinely swap them.