Immune System
Storyboard Text
- In essence, a virus is DNA surrounded by a shell, it is not even alive by our standards, so it reproduces by getting inside a cell, in this case via the ACE2 receptor, once the virus gets inside the cell, it sheds its outer shell, and injects its DNA into the cell, the cell then follows these new orders, which is to produce new viruses, the cell then fills up with new viruses,and once filled, receives a new order, to kill itself, the cell then explodes, and releases these viruses to infect new cells, and the process then repeats
- so,the virus gets around by telling cells to make more of it, then spread these viruses around?
- correct, however, since the lungs are a prime spot for invasion, the body has evolved ways to combat this from the start, when an epithelial cell detects viral antigens, it releases cytokines that tell the immune system that an infection is taking place, the immune system then reacts, and starts the immune response
- So, when the lungs detects they are infected, it tells the immune system with chemical signals
- This causes massive damage to the lungs, and even if that doesn’t kill you, this response wastes so many resources, that now ordinary infections that would have gone unnoticed by you, overwhelm the immune system and kill you
- Oh no, am I going to die?!
- Correct, This brings us to the immune response itself, since the lungs are very important,the immune system has special cells stationed there called Alveolar Macrophages,these cells are designed to tell other immune cells, such as Neutrophils, to calm down, and most importantly, to reduce inflammation, as having internal bleeding in the lungs is not good, but when these cells arrive at the infection,they get infected by the virus, and they start to massively overreact, this causes a cytokine storm, causing mass inflammation,and call in way more reinforcements then are needed.
- , when the rest of the immune system arrives, COVID infects them too, causing them to overreact, cells such as Neutrophils will spew enzymes that kill as many healthy cells as infected ones, and when the adaptive immune system arrives several days later, it causes even more damage, Killer T-Cells,which usually order infected cells to commit suicide, start killing healthy cells as well, and Dendritic cells activate the wrong B-cells, causing a massive storm of antibodies that kill cells instead of viruses,
- Probably not, in most cases the immune system will manage to wrest back control from the virus, kill the infected cells, and intercept viruses with antibodies, usually with mild symptoms such as a dry cough, fever, and nausea
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