The power of T-cells and how they battle coronavirus
A lot of talk has been taking place recently about the vaccines in development to counter SARS-CoV-2, and their potential to act on multiple fronts by stimulating antibody and T-cell responses. Most of us are relatively familiar with the concept of antibodies, but are a lot less familiar with T-cells. So what does a T-cell do? Lets find out…
An arms race between immune responses and invading pathogenic organisms occurs from the moment we come into existence, at the joining of an egg and a sperm, until we die. Our white blood cells are key players in controlling our fate to external invasion and the effectiveness of that defence is what keeps us alive. The human body is notoriously complicated, and it’s no different when it comes to the immune system. This system can be broken down into parts, and then those parts can have sub-parts to them, and those sub-parts can even have sub-sub-parts, which can also be linked with the sub-parts of other sub-sub-parts! It’s the same with a T-cell — an ingenious and useful white blood cell. Like any good defence system there are ranks within T-cells, with Lieutenants and Captains, Majors and Colonels. To be effective all those different ranks have to constantly interact and communicate, exchanging intelligence and recognition of possible threats, and how to deal with them swiftly and safely with the least amount of…
