26/01/2023
Vaccines - الأمصال
A souvenir that guarantees you eternal protection
💉 Introduction
We can imagine an infection as any foreign object entering inside your body. Your immune system notices it and goes to attack and destroy it. Not only that, but it also keeps a small part of this foreign body for easier identification incase of another infection.
But the main problem here is this process requiring a lot of time which is just what a pathogen needs to destroy your body.
What if we save all this time for your immune system? We already know all famous germs, their seasons, and modes of infection.
This is just one application of the field of immunity my friend!
💉 Main
When you are infected, your system starts doing the job that Allah put created it for, which is attaching the germ with antibodies, which represent the main weapon of your immune system. On top of that, your immune system keeps a part of this germ called the antigen in what is called memory B cells. These memory B cells will allow your body to produce the appropriate antibodies faster in case of a second infection.
One of the most popular –and effective- immunology applications is vaccines, which harness this feature of your body to work on immunizing it against –theoretically- any disease.
Do you remember this antigen which your immune system kept in case of a second infection? What if we immunize your body with the common flu virus antigen before winter?
That’s genius! We give your immune system what it needs so that when the virus arrives, it can recognize it and produce antibodies for it faster, and just like that, we can guarantee your eternal immunity against this virus.
You may ask why do I get the flu every winter if my body had already immunized itself against it? That’s an amazing question. Because your body immunized itself against the 2021 common flu virus, but it hadn’t immunized itself from its 2022 variant.
What are variations you may ask? These are changes the virus makes to itself so that your immune system can’t recognize it, and it is a very interesting topic that we could talk about later.
💡 Types
The main goal of a vaccine is to provide a small (nonpathogenic) part of the germ to your immune system. This “small part” could be its antigen, as we have previously mentioned, or it could be another memorial from the germ.
What are these “memorials” that do this job?
This is what the vaccine’s type depends on. It could be based of a dead germ, like HCA virus and the common flu virus vaccines.
It could be based on a weaker version of the virus which is uncapable of causing the disease like smallpox virus vaccine.
And it could be based on other parts like the messenger RNA (mRNA), or another proteinic part of the virus among many other types.
💡 Vaccines & Nanotechnology
Scientists have begun to exploit this feature in your body in various ways, including nanotechnology applications on vaccines. The number of nanoparticle vaccines approved for human use is increasing. The use of nanoparticles in vaccine formulations provides antigen stability, among other benefits. These particles can act either as a delivery system to improve antigen processing or as an immunostimulant.
💉 Conclusion
People are always amazed when they discover a new pathway that Allah has created in your body that protects you. One of these pathways is the ability of your body to remember any external bacteria or virus, and keep it as a memorial to remember it faster in case of a second visit and destroy it before it can harm your body.
The idea of vaccines is based on injecting your body with these antigens before you get infected; to ease the identification of the pathogen if and when if strikes, so we give your body the memorial before the visit.
✏️ By:
Bahaa Sharaf
🔗 References are in the first comment
