The immune system is the ultimate personalised army, protecting us from any bacterial or viral invaders, but also in recognising and destroying potentially cancerous cells. Like any system though, the immune system can malfunction and incorrectly identify our own bodies, or harmless food or every-day substances as targets, leading to autoimmune diseases and allergy respectively. Immune cells also have less appreciated roles in maintaining health, such as controlling weight gain in obesity, or influencing the outcome of heart disease. It is a fascinatingly complex machine composed of dozens of cell types, communicating through hundreds of different messenger molecules, all intimately affected by a myriad of external factors including, stress, diet, gender, age, time of day, hours of sunlight, and even psychology1. Researchers all over the world dedicate their careers to understanding these interactions, with much success.
Vaccines are one of the greatest public health advancements in history, with 26 separate diseases preventable by vaccination that combined are estimated to prevent over 2 million premature deaths per year2. Other examples come from novel ‘CAR-T’ treatments for advanced cancers where key immune soldiers called T cells are removed from the patient and given better weapons to specifically recognise the tumour (the weapons here being the so-called chimeric antigen receptor – CAR)3. What about in autoimmunity? Thanks to the understanding of the intricacies of these over-zealous immune responses, scientists have been able to develop effective antibody therapies, also known as ‘biologics’, that target key immune cell messenger molecules in conditions like Rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn’s disease. These are just some examples amongst the plethora of exciting advances that immunologists are at the forefront of every single day.
Of course, understanding the immune response to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is a key goal of the scientific community and governments alike right now. Being such a new virus, many questions remain. What constitutes an effective immune response? What cell types are involved? How can we boost the immune responses in elderly and vulnerable patients? How long does immunity to SARS-CoV-2 last? And importantly, how can we generate the best possible vaccine? All these questions are being addressed at an unprecedented pace by immunologists all over the world, and to them we are extremely grateful.
