Matt T. answered • 05/20/19
Medical Student with 6+ years Tutoring Experience
"Immunosuppresant" is an umbrella term that really just describes any medication that decreases the effectiveness of our immune systems. There are many medications that can achieve that and not surprisingly, they work through a variety of pathways.
Some medications, like chemotherapeutic drugs, will work by inhibiting our cells' ability to grow and divide. They're intended to target cancer cells that grow quickly. Since our white blood cells are one of the fastest growing cell types in our body, these drugs also inevitably drop our white blood cell count (essentially suppressing our immune system by killing these cells off).
Other medications, like corticosteroids, work by inhibiting/tweaking with the complex signaling pathways in our immune cells. In other words, these drugs do not destroy white blood cells but hinder their ability to function efficiently.
For any immunosuppressant medication, there is an increased risk of infection. The level of that risk depends on many factors, including the dose and duration for which someone is taking that medication, their environment (example: working in a hospital with sick patients vs. working in an office), genetics and much more. The risks are real, but sometimes the benefits of an immunosuppressant drug outweigh them. Knowing the pros and cons is key to the conversation a patient should have with their doctor before they begin this kind of therapy.
