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The human immune system is incredibly complex, second only to that of the brain and nervous control, but it can be simplified into two broad areas; short term and long-term defence. The longer-term strategies that our bodies use have evolved into highly refined and targeted responses to infections. It learns how best to combat the invader and produces antibodies against future attacks.
The short-term defence mechanisms revolve around the mobilisation of specialist cells to hunt and kill microbes wherever they can be found.
Immunity 101
If we think of our bodies as a fort under constant siege, we can liken the defence cells to sentries. These patrol our tissues, organs and blood vessels with a single mission; seek and destroy. They are all-purpose germ-killing machines with fancy names such as neutrophils and macrophages. The moment they detect the chemical signatures of something foreign to your body, they march through membranes and tissues like a rapid response unit.
Once the threat is identified, these warriors can do one of three things; spray a lethal cocktail of chemicals, use its own DNA strands as a gladiator net, or swallow the offending microbe whole. It’s not subtle and it’s not pretty. Sometimes, they get things wrong and begin to attack your own cells, other times they lose their ability to…