Immune system develops during prenatal development while infant is inside womb. Perhaps 1000 L-types and 1000-R-types combine randomly to produce 1E6 antibody types + associated cells to produce them.

When infectious agent is present, antibodies bond to it. Antibody producing cells that produce that antibody start reproducing also. This is reasoning behind primary immunization shot then one at a later date for the booster. First one causes antibody production and cell reprodunction. Second one causes more of same, but lots of cells will have reproduced so there is a much greater response.

During prenatal development we must postulate a period where any antibody producing cell that happens to produce antibodies that bond to the cells of the infant itself must automatically commit suicide -- otherwise we have an auto-immune situation right from the start. The immune cells cannot magically know what is friend and what is foe.

We further postulate that problems could exist if during this suicide phase the infant just happens (due to bad luck) to be under attack from some invader. Maybe mommy has a cold and something gets passed into the baby inside. In this event the baby would have no way of defending against that particular invader, with possibly fatal results.

Auto immune diseases are where the body's own immune system starts attacking the body. These could be caused because over time after many generations of cell division, the produced cells in the body still function adequately to get their critical tasks(s) done, but they might exhibit different surface protein constructs that now might be a match for antibodies present in the body. The fact that cells produced throughout the life of the individual are not exactly identical is well known -- aging causes slight drift in lots of places.

So to correct auto immune disease, we can postulate a treatment that would involve isolating the individual away from any source of infection for some period of time. Then intentionally trigger the suicide phase of the antibody producing cells -- once again if any of them find a "match", instead of reproducing they are directed to suicide. Thus auto-immune problem goes away.

This has application with organ transplant recipients. The receiver's immune system attacks the donated organ. Receiver must take immune suppression drugs for the rest of his/her life. Do the same process of triggering the suicide of all antibody producing cells, and the tissue rejection problem goes away, and no need to take immune system suppressants.

Solution involves verification that there is a suicide phase for the immune cell types that get a match. Then next step is to figure out how to intentionally trigger this suicide phase.

Verification can involve tests on rats. A pathogen that is known not to kill adult rats can be injected into the fetal rats at various times during development. Post-suicide phase one would expect the infant rat to survive unscathed. Pre-suicide phase one would expect infant rat to be unable to fight off the pathogen. Through timing experimentors can determine the exact time of the suicide phase during development.

Isolation of the period will then allow measurement of what is special during this period to cause the suicide phase. Perhaps it is a specific hormone only produced once during the life of the individual. Isolation of trigger mechanism and synthesis of it would allow treatment to be developed.

Page created 20060528.

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