Are allergies caused by a mutation in our immune system’s DNA? If so, are allergic people more vulnerable to “normal” diseases?

Question

I know allergies are caused by something in our immune system being different.

What I thought, is that if the allergies are a fault in the DNA, they might take the place away from other diseases that the immunity system actually tries to block?

If the allergy replaces something in our immune system, can we be more vulnerable to things that aren’t even related to our allergy?

In: Biology

Answer 1

The immune system not only needs to be capable of fighting diseases, but it also needs to have tolerance, otherwise, it may either attack itself or our bodies or react to innocuous substances.

However, both of these things can happen; there are diseases, called autoimmune diseases, where the immune system targets certain tissues, and there’s also allergies, where the immune system reacts to harmless things (pollen, certain foods, dust, etc.)

So, like you said, yes, allergies are caused by modifications to the immune system. But these modifications affect the “tolerance” part of the immune system, and have no effect on the “target” part of it.