How do vaccines work?

 How do vaccines work?

The immune system
These viruses go on to infect other cells. This causes havoc and this is where our immune system comes to our rescue. The immune system has a whole army of microscopic assassins that prevent these viruses from turning our body into a virus manufacturing unit factory. Now the immune system responds in two ways to protect us. One is the innate or non-specific immunity and another is the adaptive or specific immunity.
Innate Immunity
As the name suggests, this kind of immunity is there from birth and is non-specific which means that it responds to all kinds of pathogens in the same way. Its ultimate job is to kill the pathogen. The need here is to actually get into action very very quickly. In fact, as soon as the pathogens are detected. We can think about this type of immunity as more bran and less brain. The cells of the innate immunity go berserk as soon as they know that there are pathogens around. They are like the mad assassins trying to start killing anything and everything around them including their own body cells. Well, this kind of madness cannot go on for long. It will harm us more than doing good. In fact, some mechanisms keep this under control. This type of immunity is not connected to “How do vaccines work.”

 Adaptive or Acquired immunity

This type of immune cells are not present at birth. They develop more slowly and require the body to learn the wiley ways of the pathogen before it can defeat it. This is more brain than bran.

It identifies specific pathogens and destroys them. This is the first step in any good defense strategy to be able to tell friend from foe and in the case of our immune system that means being able to identify our own body cells from pathogens. This is done by identifying certain specific molecules such as proteins or glycolipids on the pathogen. These specific identifier molecules are called by a special name called “Antigen”. In the case of the corona virus, the spike protein is what gives away its identity. As soon as the antigen is discovered the adaptive immunity or the adaptive immune system actually gets all riled up.

     

 Take a look at the pictures    

To see the adaptive immune system in action, first, stop “Lymph Node”.

Lymph Node
This is where the intelligent part of our immune system resides introducing the “B-Lymphocyte” which is the spy of our adaptive immune system. Its job is to spot and mark the intruders that need to be neutralized. For this job, the “B-Lymphocyte” is equipped with a lot of different shapes of protein receptors called “Antibodies” on its cell surface.

FUN FACT!
A fully matured “B-Lymphocyte” displays at least 10,000 different antibodies on its surface. Different is the cool thing about them. Every lymphocyte has its own set of antibodies ready to identify and bind to a particular antigen like a key and lock, very very specific. So talking of all the lymphocytes put together, it’s like having 2 billion keys on our immune system’s key chain each of which can actually open one door or bind only to one antigen.

As soon as the match happens all hell breaks lose. The “B-Lymphocytes” sends out distress signals alerting the cells of the identity and location of the antigen. Post this, a cascade of events occur. A full-blown attack is launched on the pathogens. The pathogens neutralized and the body saved. This match-making process is actually a race against time. Till the match-making happens the innate immune system or the innate immune cells keep fighting mindlessly but are not in a position to completely neutralize all the pathogens. Even now the pathogens are continuously replicating in the body and wreaking havoc. So faster the matchmaking process better it is for the body. Sometimes this matchmaking process happens within a “Few hours” a “Few days” or it “may not happen at all” in which case the pathogen is victorious. 

In a good case scenario when it does find a match, along with alerting other immune cells and going in for a full kill some of the “B-Lymphocytes” become a long-lasting memory cell. Memory cells register the shape of the antibody that matched with the antigen. So in case, the same antigen and thereby the same pathogen is encountered again the response is quicker and our body can eliminate the pathogen quickly.

Vaccines

A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious disease. Vaccines contain tiny inactive parts of a particular antigen that help trigger an immune response within the body. For instance, when we get a vaccine for smallpox, our body remembers the smallpox antigens and how it harms the body. So in the future, if the smallpox virus ever tries to enter our body, the immune system can easily identify it and produce suitable antibodies to fight against it. Just like how the smallpox vaccine helps prevent the smallpox virus from entering our body, COVID-19 vaccines also work similarly. While there are many vaccines around the world for the COVID-19 virus, one of its latest types is a DNA-based vaccine.

Objective of vaccines

The objective of vaccines is to expose the body to these antigens before the actual pathogens get entry into the body different kinds of vaccines to expose the pathogen in different ways to the body. It could be either be in a weekend or a dead state sometimes just the antigen part of the pathogen is exposed to the body and a new technique called “mRNA” vaccines can also be designed or developed for this but all of these have the same result that is triggering the “B-Lymphocytes” response without actually causing the disease. When we take the jab the “B-Lymphocytes” get into action finds the match creates the memory cells that are required so that just in case of exposure to the actual pathogen our body can go kill the pathogen full-on ninja style. 

                

                Take a look at the  pictures    

             Take a look at the pictures    

                Take a look at the pictures