So, just what is “the paradox of the immune system?” As you have probably concluded by now, the “paradox” is actually a collection of paradoxes or would-be contradictions, inconsistencies, indeed, even mysteries of medical and healthcare science involving the immune system. Just to list some, but not all that I tried to identify through the previous 44 blogs, they include:
Self-versus-nonself;
Innate versus adaptive immunity;
Adaptive immunity as a friend and foe;
Our “best friend and worst enemy”
Immunity’s regulated and dysregulated systems;
Health protection and health threat;
Dangerous versus benign nonself and the toll-like receptor (TLR) “sentry”;
Acute inflammation healing and ulceration;
Acute versus chronic inflammation;
Accumulation of immune (cellular and humoral) substances in tissue;
Tumor necrosis factor (TNF-a) inflammatory and anti-inflammatory effects;
Self-versus-self (autoimmunity);
Autoimmunity (“the mother of all immune system paradoxes”);
Female versus male predilections to autoimmune diseases and cancers;
Rogue B-cell attacking self;
Epitope spreading;
The role of the X chromosome and miRNA in males versus females;
Immunosuppressive agents as therapeutics and as threats;
The immune system and COVID-19 (the infection’s best friend and worst enemy).
This list only scratched the surface of the immune system puzzles. Actually, the science of immunology is growing every day and we will begin to trace its progress with each succeeding blog. I can only hope that the previous blogs have given you a contemporaneous foundation and framework upon which we can continue to build an understanding of this enigmatic science going forward. Immunology, autoimmune disease, cancer, immunotherapies, and regrettably, pandemics are the kinds of subjects that need a continuing informational resource, many of which exist already in varying forms. This blog will attempt to be your source for relevant, updates of the paradoxes that will flow from evolving immunologic research. Hopefully, it will also provide some answers to the enigmatic information presented.
We are beginning to see the occasional 95-year-old still jogging or the 100-year-old blowing out birthday candles. It makes us feel like, “I’ve got a shot” and indeed you do. We can pretty much thank our immune system for giving us that hope. But as far as beating the “grim reaper” or immortality, we all pretty much know, “it ain’t gonna happen” in most of our lifetimes. Chronic inflammation, autoimmunity, cancer (or “cancering”), and all the other immune-related diseases are all products of “an enemy within us.” The system that defends most of us, most of our lives, is also the inescapable collaborator in our “last dance.” Best we accept that ultimate paradox of the immune system by proffering care and empathy to those who suffer its unkind duplicities as we try to enjoy and be thankful for the benefits and protection it provides.
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