Page 36 - The Miracle in the Immune System

34 THE MIRACLE OF THE IMMUNE SYSTEM

Ebola virus (top left), Influenza
virus (bottom left), Common
cold virus (bottom right)

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 sophisticated and intelligent. In the first
place, the virus must determine whether the cell is ap-
propriate 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.
The virus confuses the cell with the tactics it em-
ploys and avoids observation.
This is how the events develop: the cell transports
the new DNA of the virus into its nucleus. Thinking that
it produces protein, the cell starts to replicate this new
DNA. The DNA of the virus hides itself so furtively that
the cell involuntarily becomes the production factory of
its own enemy and produces the very viruses that will