| When you read a medical science article, you might | | | | communicates its scouting report to the commander |
| see technical terminology that can baffle the | | | | called a T helper cell. The T helper cell puts the base |
| brightest minds. But when you understand what | | | | on battle alert and passes the antigen information on |
| those terms mean, you can see that your inner | | | | to the destroyer cells. Each destroyer cell now has a |
| space is just as exciting and strange as science | | | | copy of the invader's antigen to allow it to recognize |
| fiction's outer space. The story of how the body's | | | | and destroy the cancerous cells. |
| immune system works is like reading a science fiction | | | | There are three main destroyer cells (white blood |
| novel full of strange creatures, weapons and a plot | | | | cells). There are the killer T cells (or cytotoxic T cell) |
| to overthrow civilizations. This is one such story that | | | | which act as the infantry in the battalion. Once the |
| tells of a breakthrough in treating mesothelioma | | | | killer T cells identify an invader (using the antigen |
| cancer and provides hope for those afflicted with the | | | | they were given) they launch a chemical weapon |
| disease. | | | | (cytotoxin) that penetrates the invader and literally |
| On February 18, 2010, an academic paper was | | | | forces them to self destruct (apoptosis). |
| published in the relatively obscure American Journal of | | | | Macrophages are the tanks in the army. They engulf |
| Respiratory and Critical Care by a group of 9 | | | | and digest every invader in their path (phagocytosis). |
| scientists from the Netherlands. They reported a | | | | Then there are the combat engineers called B cells. |
| unique immunotherapy approach, called dendritic cell | | | | When B cells are given their target antigen, they |
| vaccination, for treating mesothelioma cancer. | | | | produce and launch millions of antigen seeking missiles |
| Mesothelioma cancer is a form of cancer that has | | | | called antibodies. The antibody is programmed to |
| been linked to asbestos exposure and can affect the | | | | seek out any organism with the specific target |
| lungs, abdomen and the heart. Immunotherapy is a | | | | antigen and attach itself to it. Once it is attached it |
| therapy that beneficially manipulates the body's | | | | destroys the organism by infection. |
| immune system to fight disease. To understand the | | | | This seems like an impressive array of weapons that |
| importance of this discovery and what a dendritic cell | | | | our bodies possess to destroy invaders but cancer |
| approach is, we must first understand how both a | | | | cells have counter measure weapons to evade |
| cancer occurs and how the immune system works. | | | | detection. One of these weapons is like a cloak of |
| Think of your body as a futuristic city, and your skin | | | | invisibility. Some cancer cells have the ability to alter |
| as a force field that protects the city. Then imagine | | | | their own DNA and in turn give themselves the ability |
| that one day, an alien life force slips past the outer | | | | to morph their outer appearance to resemble a |
| defenses and into the city and begins to inhabit the | | | | healthy cell. It accomplishes this by submerging its |
| bodies of the citizens living in this city. This is how | | | | own antigens from the surface of its cellular |
| cancer works. The DNA inside a healthy cell is | | | | membrane when a dendritic cell is nearby and then |
| mutated as if an alien life force has inhabited the cells. | | | | resurfacing the antigen when the dendritic cell is gone |
| Scientists only have a theory as to why mutations | | | | (antigenic modulation). |
| occur (somatic mutation theory) but it is not proven. | | | | And here is where the exciting development in |
| Once these normal cells have mutated, they become | | | | cancer fighting begins. The Dutch scientists reached |
| zombie like cancer cells and begin to replicate their | | | | into this miniature battle ground and removed some |
| DNA to create new cancerous cells. These zombies | | | | of the cancer cells from the mesothelioma patients. |
| walk amongst the living throughout the city. But | | | | They then extracted the antigens. It was a sort of |
| there is one very peculiar aspect to them. These | | | | kidnap and interrogate mission to find the cancer cell's |
| cancer cells are not recognized by the body's immune | | | | secret antigen. A massive scouting group of 50 million |
| system as foreign invaders. The reason is that they | | | | dendritic cells were then given that specific antigen |
| have developed multiple anti-detection weapons that | | | | and were injected back into the patient's body. The |
| prevent the immune system from recognizing them. | | | | scientists now hoped that the dendritic cells, armed |
| To comprehend the nature of the cancerous | | | | with the correct scouting information on the invaders, |
| anti-detection weapons, we have to first examine | | | | would quickly travel to the lymph nodes to alert the |
| the weapons that the immune system possesses. | | | | battalion troops. If the destroyer cells could receive |
| Imagine that the immune system is an internal | | | | that specific antigen they could launch their forces |
| security force that patrols the body. The security | | | | and identify and destroy their targets. |
| force consists of different battle units. | | | | The test results were very encouraging. They found |
| At the front line are the scouts, called dendritic cells. | | | | an increase in antibodies and T cells, which meant |
| When confronted by invading organisms, the dendritic | | | | that the dendritic cells had done their job in sounding |
| cells collect molecular information called an antigen. | | | | the battle alert. The troops were on the move. Most |
| Think of an antigen molecule as an organism's scent | | | | importantly, they also found an increased level of |
| and the dendritic cells as sniffer dogs. When the | | | | cytotoxins (those chemical weapons used by the |
| dendritic cell detects an invader it immediately | | | | killer T cells) in the vicinity of the tumor. This was |
| retrieves the antigen and moves to the battle | | | | evidence that the fight had begun. Three out of ten |
| garrisons called the lymph nodes. This is where all the | | | | patients in the study group showed signs of tumor |
| battle units reside. | | | | regression. |
| Once at the lymph node the dendritic cell | | | | |