![]() The armour of the guarding cells will recognize the invading bacterium and then they will alarm the blood vessel cells by sending them chemical signals, called cytokines. The guarding cells have their PPRs as armours, the ‘Pattern Recognition Receptors’. Simply put, our body recognizes these common molecules and knows this is not something that belongs here. PAMPs is an abbreviation for ‘Pathogen-Associated Molecular Patterns’ a very long term indicating that microbes have these molecules sticking out to their surfaces that will be picked up by the guarding cells. ![]() The guarding cells will notice the invading microbe because microbes contain PAMPs. However, when a bad bacterium invades our body, such as Salmonella typhi, this will not go unnoticed! Luckily, we have some guarding cells that are hiding in our tissue, which are also called ‘sentinel cells’. Little does he realize that the meal he is enjoying contains some vegetables that haven’t been washed well. So here goes the story: On a nice Sunday afternoon in July, Julius Petri (famous microbiologist, in case you haven’t heard about him) is having a picnic in the park. Moreover, it will grow more mature towards adulthood. If you are a healthy individual, there is nothing much to worry about, the innate immune systems will do its job. These are all quite difficult names that define several types of white blood cells, or ‘leukocytes’. Several actors are involved in this complex system, such as neutrophils, dendritic cells, lymphocytes and monocytes that transform into macrophages. In other words, it is always there, watching over us. This first line of defence is our innate immunity, which already exists prior to infection. Pathogens can make you pretty sick, sometimes up to the point where your body can’t deal with them anymore and you die think of salmonella food poisoning, hepatitis B, malaria fever, just to name a few. Fortunately, we are armed with a part of our immune system that can wear off a bunch of the bad microorganisms, also called ‘pathogens’. Once we are born, our body gets exposed to millions of bacteria and other microorganisms, some of them bad, some of them good and some nothing much. However, let us first start with straightening out the concept of innate immunity! Our immune warriors have played a tremendous role in defending us from the above and their role will become even more prominent with the future rise of new, innovative immunotherapeutics. However, what exactly does our immune system entail? Where does it come from and how does it work? An even more compelling question might be: how can our immune system protect us from dangerous pathogens such as life-threatening viruses and be of use to fight the emerging antimicrobial resistance? Now with the COVID-19 crisis fully ongoing, people have become much more aware of the concept of immune system, and the terms “antibody”, “herd immunity”, “immune protection” and so on have been all over the place. ![]() However, little do we reflect upon the fact that a continuous battle is being fought in our daily lives, not visible by the naked eye. Maybe you would rather pick a modern-day, real-life hero such as your mother, or a Nobel Prize winner like Marie Curie, who revolutionized science as we know it. When we hear the word ‘Superheroes’ we usually think of Batman, the Avengers or The Iliad and The Odyssey.
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