Thread by @pankti4299

I wrote a small story to explain #ImmuneResponse in #COVID19 to better understand what happens in our bodies. Sharing it here. #Tweetorial

We’ll pretend that the virus is an intruder while our house represents our body. The door of our house is a portal of entry. /1

When an intruder enters our house, we would arm ourselves with whatever we can & try to fight him. We’re not experts. So our response may be amateur, our weapons may not even be sufficient to beat him. This is similar to the innate response.
Next, we’d call the cops.

The innate immune response is non specific. It’s the first to act. Cells involved in this response would present the antigen to cells responsible for acquired immunity. We can call this “handing it over to the experts” as for the cops in our story.

The cops will then decide which department will take over the case. Supposing the person you called was a fresh recruit (much like a naive T cell), he would accompany his senior officials and try to act like them.
He will also ask for “help” from the head of the dept (CD4+)

To understand the 2 types of acquired immune response, we assume the HOD (CD4) sends 2 groups of cops. One group is armed with rifles- to shoot at the intruders (much like CD8 cells) and the other with handcuffs (B cells) to bind the intruders and make it easier to capture them.

To understand the 2 types of acquired immune response, we assume the HOD (CD4) sends 2 groups of cops. One group is armed with rifles- to shoot at the intruders (much like CD8 cells) and the other with handcuffs (B cells) to bind the intruders and make it easier to capture them.

Normally, this response should be regulated. There are laws binding the cops from going into a massive shoot out. (Like Treg cells). But let’s say in #COVID19 these laws are broken, leading to a dysregulated hyperinflammatory immune response - the cytokine storm.

Once the fight is over, all that remains with you and the cops is a memory of the incident. You’re extra cautious now, & you install an alarm that goes off if another intruder tries to break in. This alarm lets the cops to come to your aid faster & results in a quicker response.

This is done by Memory B cells and T cells in our body. Only, it’s a little more complex. The memory cells respond specifically to the antigen they’ve been exposed to. Only if the same pathogen strikes again, they’ll provide a quicker and more effective response.

This is essentially what we’re trying to achieve with #vaccines . we’re trying to make our immune systems familiar to #COVID19. Only, vaccines provide a killed virus, so they’re safer than actual infection which results from a live, transmissible virus.

So by chance if we’re infected in the future with the live virus, our immune cells will go into fight mode. And having been trained and familiar with the know-hows of the virus, they’ll effectively fight the virus faster in our own bodies.

This is to say, that the vaccine may or may not affect infectivity of the virus. Meaning, we could still get infected. But we won’t have a clinically severe disease. This is true for most vaccines.
Watch Dr Fauci discuss it here:

So say, you get immunity to Covid-19 without suffering through the severity of Covid-19. That’s what a vaccine will do for you. That’s why it’s so important to get vaccinated.

This has been done so many times for so many infections before. We’ve achieved a polio free status with the help of vaccines.
Hope this story was helpful.

There is light at the end of the tunnel. Get vaccinated. The sooner you do, the sooner we reach there.

/Fin.

Read more:

https://twitter.com/HaryaxPathak/status/1364550858466189315

Continue reading here:

https://twitter.com/pankti4299/status/1369223180091588609

All the more the reason to vaccinate. Emerging evidence that vaccines may also reduce infectivity of the virus. Watch @PaulSaxMD explain here:

https://twitter.com/nejm/status/1367882598807179270

nature.com/articles/d4158…