Page 32 - The Miracle of the Immune System

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THE MIRACLE OF THE IMMUNE SYSTEM

that try to invade the body act like experienced thieves. One of the best
known and most important of these thieves is the virus.
This organism, whose existence we became aware of with the inven-
tion of the electron microscope, is too simple-structured and small to be
considered even as a cell. Viruses, which vary in sizes ranging from 0.1 to
0.280 microns, are excluded from the world of living things for this rea-
son. 2
Although categorized as being apart from the world of living beings,
viruses indisputably possess at least as exceptional abilities as all other
living beings do. A closer examination of the lives of viruses will make
this fact more apparent. Viruses are the compulsory parasites of living be-
ings. This means, they cannot survive if they do not settle into a plant, an-

imal, or human cell, and consume its food and energy. Viruses do not
have a system that would enable them to survive on their own. As if they
are aware of this, they deftly slip into a cell, and after invading the cell,
with the same deftness turn the cell into a "virus production factory" that
produces its own copies.
This plan developed by the virus to invade the cell is extremely so-
phisticated and intelligent. In the first
place, the virus must determine whether
the cell is appropriate for itself or not. It
has to be very careful and meticulous in
this decision, for the smallest mistake may
cause its death. To avoid such an end, it
uses its special receptors to check whether
the cell is appropriate for it or not. The
next important thing it does is to carefully
locate itself within the cell.

A virus modifying its structure so that it
is not identified by the immune system.
(The rhinovirus 14)