Immune System

[Tero]

With these pandemics and viruses popping up in news, I was forced to once more review the immune system. Wikipedia articles have limited examples. Using Google Scholar found this article.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5489343/

Invaders have DNA or RNA and protein and do some processing using our enzymes. The pieces are different from ours, so the immune system is set up to recognize broad catergories of viruses. It looks at the DNA and RNA as well as proteins. Some of those proteins are not ours. The cell is set up to do this but the cells can also lyse once a certain point is reached. It is ready to take one for the team.


https://reactome.org/content/detail/R-HSA-168249

[Tero]

The system is set up very well to recognize things that are "not you." It does not need to know what the invader is other than virus vs other.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innate_im ... pecificity

Viruses
Type I interferons (IFN), secreted mainly by dendritic cells,[22] play a central role in antiviral host defense and a cell's antiviral state.[23] Viral components are recognized by different receptors: Toll-like receptors are located in the endosomal membrane and recognize double-stranded RNA (dsRNA), MDA5 and RIG-I receptors are located in the cytoplasm and recognize long dsRNA and phosphate-containing dsRNA respectively.[24] When the cytoplasmic receptors MDA5 and RIG-I recognize a virus the conformation between the caspase-recruitment domain (CARD) and the CARD-containing adaptor MAVS changes. In parallel, when toll-like receptors in the endocytic compartments recognize a virus the activation of the adaptor protein TRIF is induced. Both pathways converge in the recruitment and activation of the IKKε/TBK-1 complex...

[Brian Peacock]

And we woulda gotten away with it if it weren't for them pesky RNA recombiners!

[Tero]

It gets complicated after the antbodies are recruited. Under adaptive immunity in books is the antibody business. They are mostly markers, with big nasty phagocytes doing the killing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antibody

[NineBerry]

[Tero]

Lovely phagocytes.