Page 107 - The Miracle of the Immune System

105
The Enemies Of The System

manage to win over some antibodies by a method undiscovered to date.
As we have mentioned, antibodies are a type of protein that stops the
activities of enemy cells. However, for some unknown reason, cancer cells
are adversely affected by the antibodies. Instead of stopping, their activities
increase, resulting in the rapid and forceful spreading of the tumour.
Antibodies, which bind themselves on to the surface of the cancer

cell, "collaborate" with the cancer cell in a sense. Other antibodies do not
touch a cancer cell having an antibody attached to it. Hence, the cancer
cell is perfectly camouflaged.
Collaboration between antibodies and cancer cells can reach even
broader dimensions. There are also occasions where cancer cells combine
with antibodies to form "pseudo supressor T cells". These pseudo sup-
pressor T cells misinform antibodies by relaying the message that there is
"no danger". More sinister situations also develop whereby the cancer
cells develop into "Pseudo Helper T cells" instead of the pseudo suppres-

sor T cells. In such situations, the message is delivered to a bigger num-
ber of antibodies. There can be no more convenient environment possible
for the development of cancer cells.
Additionally, cancer cells may sometimes spread "trap antigens" in
order to protect themselves from a possible attack by the defence system.
These tumours spread out such large amounts of antigens from their sur-
face that the blood stream is inundated with them. These antigens, howe-

ver, are fake and cause no harm to the human body. However, the anti-
bodies are not aware of this and they respond without delay by instigat-
ing a war against them.
During this chaos, the real and dangerous cancer cells continue to
function, going undisturbed and undiscovered by the enemy.

An Intelligent Enemy: AIDS

In the previous chapters we discussed viruses and explained the im-
portance of their role in the life of humans. Among these viruses, the most