> And even after taking [immunosuppressants], there’s a 30% chance the kidney will be rejected within 10 years. This is not helpful.
To the author: thank you, you made my day. It had been a very, very long time since I last read an article on the Internet that felt written by a human being - with humor, some poetry, and science.
There is zero inherent way to tell a malicious group of proteins and RNA or cells or biological process from a non-malicious once. They are both the same exact activity. Your body is killing cells all the time, so even cell death isn't a certain indicator (though is an indicator in the innate immune system and cells dying the "wrong" way will activate a response)
The only useful signal is "This wasn't here yesterday". Your body generates B cells with a little sensor that has it's own special systems to have especially randomized sensor activity. Your body is generating random binding sites because there's no rules for what a hostile protein would look like.
Then it prunes these B cells by showing them a bunch of proteins your body is capable of producing, and killing any cell that signals for proteins your body normally has. This leaves you with a bunch of B cells that have random sensors tuned to only trigger for things that weren't in your body yesterday.
This is great, because it's a proactive measure against evolution. It's the core innovation of the adaptive immune system, and a massive advancement in biological self defense.
Cells from someone else will have some different markers and proteins than found in your body. Human genetics are 99% the same yes, but there is massive diversity in the remainder.
Note that this constraint is not biological in nature! Any general purpose "programming" environment cannot differentiate between "Hostile" and "Benign" by function or structure alone! The body, like many smart cybersecurity groups, made an allowlist. Though the way that allowlist is made is fascinating
Noe2097 · · focus · HN ↗
To the author: thank you, you made my day. It had been a very, very long time since I last read an article on the Internet that felt written by a human being - with humor, some poetry, and science.
varispeed · · focus · HN ↗
Almost like Apple with component serialisation.
mrguyorama · · focus · HN ↗
The only useful signal is "This wasn't here yesterday". Your body generates B cells with a little sensor that has it's own special systems to have especially randomized sensor activity. Your body is generating random binding sites because there's no rules for what a hostile protein would look like.
Then it prunes these B cells by showing them a bunch of proteins your body is capable of producing, and killing any cell that signals for proteins your body normally has. This leaves you with a bunch of B cells that have random sensors tuned to only trigger for things that weren't in your body yesterday.
This is great, because it's a proactive measure against evolution. It's the core innovation of the adaptive immune system, and a massive advancement in biological self defense.
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germinal_center" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germinal_center
Cells from someone else will have some different markers and proteins than found in your body. Human genetics are 99% the same yes, but there is massive diversity in the remainder.
Note that this constraint is not biological in nature! Any general purpose "programming" environment cannot differentiate between "Hostile" and "Benign" by function or structure alone! The body, like many smart cybersecurity groups, made an allowlist. Though the way that allowlist is made is fascinating