E484k
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Three people in Washington state were found to be infected with this variant.
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Read the small print. T cell immunity is what the scientific community is praying will give long term protection.
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@bachophile said in E484k:
Read the small print. T cell immunity is what the scientific community is praying will give long term protection.
It’s not even fine print, it’s in the second tweet of the set.
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@bachophile said in E484k:
Read the small print. T cell immunity is what the scientific community is praying will give long term protection.
It’s not even fine print, it’s in the second tweet of the set.
We’ve heard about antibodies fading or being undetectable many times, and that T cell immunity is the key.
The latest on E484k is worrying enough that I would like to understand the antibody vs T cell thing better.
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Lymphocytes are divided into two types. B cells and T cells.
They work very differently.
B cells are factories for producing antibodies. Antibodies are molecules called immunoglobulins, Y shaped molecules who attach to foreign proteins and then this triggers a cascade of killer molecules called the complement. The complement kills the foreign cells.
T cells work differently. No immunoglobulins. They get presented the foreign antigen by cells called APCs antigen presenting cell, also called a macrophage or dendritic cell. Once the T cells are presented with the antigen, they get turned on into killer cells which cause them to attack anything showing that antigen. Called activating the T cells.
Now there are actually several types of T cells but the killers are called CD8 T cells. The killers. In contrast, T helpers CD4’s are the cells infected by HIV. T killers need the helpers to get them activated.
Now both T cells and B cells have memory. Once presented with an antigen, they remember it, and can react much quicker the second time. However, the memory is a bit different. B cell memory can fade with time and sometimes needs to be boosted. But T cell memory is quite long lasting. Maybe for the lifetime of the organism. But cannot be quantified in a blood test as opposed to antibodies which can easily be counted (Called a titre)
So in a nutshell, even without a strong titre of antibodies, T cell memory still can be powerful and effective but not very measurable.
That’s it in an extremely basic immunology for dummies lesson 1.
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@bachophile Thank you. I learned that once upon a time and promptly forgot most of it...
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@bachophile said in E484k:
That’s it in an extremely basic immunology for dummies lesson 1.
I used to know this stuff...
An aside, I went to school with a guy who eventually became the director of the cancer center at Northwestern. He always maintained that the future of cancer therapy lies in immunotherapy.
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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@bachophile said in E484k:
That’s it in an extremely basic immunology for dummies lesson 1.
I used to know this stuff...
An aside, I went to school with a guy who eventually became the director of the cancer center at Northwestern. He always maintained that the future of cancer therapy lies in immunotherapy.
He was right
Chemotherapy is just fancy poison.
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@bachophile @George-K Do the current vaccines help train the T cell system, or only the B cells?
Please love yourself.
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@aqua-letifer said in E484k:
@bachophile @George-K Do the current vaccines help train the T cell system, or only the B cells?
Being extensively looked at by many labs.
In vitro seems to. We see T cell activation when exposed to coronavirus antigens used in the vaccines but unclear if it’s happening in the body. But many are optimistic.
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