immunosuppressant
- noun
- /ɪˌmjunəʊsəˈprɛsənt/
- Specialized
- The doctor prescribed an immunosuppressant to help prevent rejection of the transplanted kidney.
- immunosuppressant drug
Examples
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After the operation, she was advised to take an immunosuppressant to maintain her new heart's health.
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Information about the use of immunosuppressant and antimicrobial drugs and neuraminidase inhibitors was obtained from the Drug Program Information Network, the comprehensive database of all out-of-hospital prescriptions dispensed in Manitoba.
Academic text (2012) -
Sirolimus is an immunosuppressant drug also known as rapamycin.
Blog text (23) -
In 1983, the introduction of the immunosuppressant drug cyclosporine greatly reduced the rejection rates of transplanted organs.
Academic text (1998) -
It is very easy for a person on immunosuppressant drugs to catch colds, the flu, or common viruses that most human bodies can readily defend themselves against.
Academic text (2012) -
Administration of cyclosporin, a potent immunosuppressant used to prevent transplanted organ rejection, is complicated by its poor and unpredictable oral bioavailability.
Academic text (1991) -
Several immunosuppressant properties of this drug provide a rationale for its use in multiple sclerosis, which is associated with dysregulated responses of T and B cells to antigens in the central nervous system and macrophage-mediated myelin damage and axonal injury.
Academic text (2002) -
Currently, the only available means for the prevention of intimal hyperplasia is through inhibition of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) with the immunosuppressant rapamycin (26).
Academic text (2012) -
Patients with autoimmune diseases often rely on an immunosuppressant to reduce their immune system's activity.
Synonyms
A drug that weakens the immune system to stop organ rejection after a transplant
A drug that makes the body's immune system weaker to prevent organ rejection or treat autoimmune disease
A drug that weakens the body's defences to stop a transplanted organ being rejected
A drug that lowers the body's natural defense to stop organ rejection or treat diseases where the body attacks itself
A drug that lowers the body's natural defence to prevent organ rejection
Drug that makes the body's immune system weaker
A medicine that weakens the immune system to treat diseases where the body attacks itself and to prevent transplant rejection
Surface Forms
Morphology
immunosuppressant = suppressant (transparent) = immuno + suppress + ant
The combining form 'immuno-' (relating to the immune system) attached to 'suppressant' yields a clear meaning: an agent that suppresses the immune response.
Etymology
Immunosuppressant breaks into immune 'protected', suppress 'to push down', and the ending -ant 'one that does'. So an immunosuppressant is a medicine that 'pushes down' the body's protection, making the immune system weaker so it does not attack a new organ or the body's own tissues.