Most explanations you read/see about how the immune system works do a lot of anthropomorphising unfortunately, usually because the actual processes are too complex to explain. White bloods cells don’t do anything, they are just cells, they float around. They have no agency, they have no purpose, they have no directive.
As far as I know, white blood cells move independently, crawling like amoebas or “millipedes” along vessel walls to reach infection sites. They use special adhesive “legs” to move at high speeds, even swimming in liquid using molecular “paddles”. WBCs actively exit blood vessels, following chemical signals to damaged tissue.
I didn’t appreciate how much of chemistry and biology is just geometry until reading about AlphaFold. AFAIK, antigens bind because they literally “fit”. And if they don’t fit, it just slips off until the body can produce a matching geometry.
They don’t go after everything foreign. They are produced with instructions by which they identify a threat.
It’s their production source which provides the instructions and it’s not that smart or we wouldn’t have cases where the immune system attacks the body itself.yes, in fact our moral reasoning comes from the function of white blood cells and their extreme xenophobia - it is an important lesson to learn that foreign = bad, white = good … oh wait, hmmmmmmmmm
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I thought it was that certain roaming immune cells are basically pretty interested in literally everything they encounter, but you’re own cells have chemicals cues that signal they are ok. And as soon as a they doesn’t get the ok signal, all hell breaks loose, signaling the home bade, calling for backup, etc.
But this can go wrong, with like bacteria or cancer trying to mimic the “ok” Signal.
If someone wants to add, please do, because although i’m a biologist i mostly remember that the immune system is way more complex than you’d think.
Despite all the caveats, red blood cells “discern bad from good” better than most government officials.
Nothing is perfect, no defense is 100%.
How do you explain autoimmune diseases then?
Your own cells have protein signature directly dependent on the genetics. Everything that doesn’t match is attacked
I don’t think a dog in heat is a good analogy, seeing as immune cells attack invaders, not try to have reproduce with them. Anyway, others have given good answers.
Being a foreigner doesn’t automatically mean something is bad - just unfamiliar.
look at Mr. Rogers over here
