Immunosuppressive drug
agent that suppresses immune function by one of several mechanisms of action (e.g. inhibiting DNA synthesis, inhibiting activation of T-cells, or inhibiting the activation of helper cells)
Immunosuppressive drugs, also known as immunosuppressive agents, immunosuppressants and antirejection medications, are drugs that inhibit or prevent the activity of the immune system.
Classification
Immunosuppressive drugs can be classified into five groups:
glucocorticoids
cytostatics
antibodies
drugs acting on immunophilins
other drugs
Glucocorticoids
In pharmacologic (supraphysiologic) doses, glucocorticoids, such as prednisone, dexamethasone, and hydrocortisone are used to suppress various allergic, inflammatory, and autoimmune disorders. They are also administered as posttransplantory immunosuppressants to prevent the acute transplant rejection and graft-versus-host disease. Nevertheless, they do not prevent an infection and also inhibit later reparative processes.
Immunosuppressive mechanism
Glucocorticoids suppress cell-mediated immunity. They act by inhibiting gene expression of cytokines including Interleukin 1 (IL-1), IL-2, IL-3, IL-4, IL-5, IL-6, IL-8, and TNF-alpha by binding to corticosteroid response elements on DNA. This decrease in cytokine production reduces T cell proliferation. With decreased T cell proliferation there is decreased production of IL-2. This further decreases the proliferation of T cells.
Glucocorticoids also suppress the humoral immunity, causing B cells to express smaller amounts of IL-2 and IL-2 receptors. This diminishes both B cell clone expansion and antibody synthesis.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Immunosuppressive drug” as agent that suppresses immune function by one of several mechanisms of action (e.g. inhibiting DNA synthesis, inhibiting activation of T-cells, or inhibiting the activation of helper cells). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q249619. The Library of Congress control number is sh85064589. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Immunosuppressive drug” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.