Science: "Bad Antibodies" in the Immune System Have Significant Uses

Scientists at the Garvan Medical Institute in Sydney have found that a class of "bad antibodies" in the immune system can provide crucial protection against invading microorganisms.

It is called a "bad antibody" because it reacts to the body's own tissues and may cause autoimmune diseases. For this reason, people once thought that they were inactive for a long time.

However, this new study shows for the first time that when the body faces a disease threat that other antibodies cannot solve, such "bad antibodies" will undergo a rapid "redemption" process. After the "redemption" of bad antibodies no longer poses a threat to the body itself, it has become a powerful weapon against disease, especially for those diseases that evade the immune system by disguising themselves as normal tissues.

Campylobacter, HIV, etc. are the most "headache" targets for the immune system because they have evolved almost as much as the body itself. In order to understand how the immune system recognizes it, scientists have focused on a mysterious army of immune cells in the blood. This silent cell army contains millions of immune cells called B cells, which produce antibodies against the disease. However, unlike other B cells, this B cell army poses a threat to the body. Because they are responsible for antibody structure and function mentioned earlier. It is also for this reason that they are silent for a long time (ineffective energy state).

Professor Chris Goodnow, discovered these silent cells 30 years ago and has been working on their function since then. "My biggest doubt about these cells is why they exist, and how many are there? Why does the body keep these cells instead of completely destroying them?" he said.

This new result seems to answer these questions. Dr. Deborah Burnett, the first author of the paper, said: "We have found that these silent cells do have very important uses to provide weapons against intruders."

In the study, using complex preclinical mouse models, scientists discovered that these silent cells produce antibodies when confronted with invaders that are highly similar to autologous components. Most importantly, before these cells launch an attack, the antibodies they produce will first achieve "salvation" through minor changes to their DNA sequences. This process will not only make "bad antibodies" no longer attack itself, but will also quickly turn them into powerful weapons against foreign invaders.

Daniel Christ, the co-author of the paper, said: "This research has embarked on an exciting journey. We have not only discovered a new type of immunity, but we have also accurately confirmed how bad antibodies are getting better. We hope that researchers will no longer ignore this group of silent B cells in the future. We used to think that these harmful antibodies are discarded like trash 'bad apples', no one knows these 'bad antibodies' can also be changed for the better. The new study changes how people understand the protection mechanism of the immune system. And this new understanding means that 'bad antibodies' will become valuable resources for the development of HIV and other disease vaccines,." Professor Goodnow concluded.

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