Keeping a strong body healthy

The proper function of proteins in the body is very essential to health.  The proteins also have to have a functional structure and cellular integrity.  Getting old keeps humans from being young and healthy, obviously.  Our body ages because various organisms are always subject to attack causing diseases and viruses.  Disease causing agents are termed pathogens.  Pathogens will penetrate the protective layer, the skin, and then move on towards the first line of defense.  Mucous membranes are the first line of defense.  Once the pathogens break through the mucous membranes they are labeled foreign invaders and will subsequently be destroyed by the immune system.

The human body is a model for a city that is always at war.  If the city isn’t reconstructed it will crumble.  What types of defense will a city utilize in the midst of a war?

The human body has two types of immunity:

                -Cellular immunity and humoral immunity

Coming straight out of the bone marrow we introduce antibody.  Antibodies are proteins that are mediated against viral attacks.  “The immune response is triggered by the presence of a foreign macromolecule, often a protein or carbohydrate, known as an antigen” (Voet, Fundamentals of Biochemistry 2006).  B cells produce antibodies, which as we recently said, mature in the bone marrow.  Pay attention to B cells.  B cells flaunt immunoglobulins on their exteriors.  Immunoglobulins snatch foreign invaders, and lock them in the B cells where they are broken and degraded.  The broken antigen is then placed on display.  The circulating antibodies become antigen specific.  The antibodies fluidly mark antigens for destruction.  Some B cells are short-lived.  They survive for a couple of days.  Some B cells live from many weeks to many years.  These potent B cells are called memory B cells. 

“…tolerance…”

Memory B cells mount a secondary response.  This response is more accurate and much faster than the primary response mentioned earlier.

“…sensitivity…”

The immunoglobulins themselves also create a diverse group of proteins.  The differences between the sub classes of immunoglobulins are: different amounts of heavy chains, and various subunits.  “These subunits associate by disulfide bonds and noncovalent interactions to form a roughly Y-shaped symmetric molecule with the formula (LH)₂” (Voet, Fundamentals of Biochemistry 2006).  We have: IgM, IgA, IgG, IgE, and IgD.  We can use an example in accordance with Rheumatology International journal (Novel mutations of MVK gene in Japanese family members affected with hyperimmunoglobulinemia D and periodic fever syndrome, Mizuno 2011).  IgD expression begins when the B cell leaves the bone marrow headed to peripheral lymphoid tissues.  IgD functions to signal B cell activation.  When IgD is unavailable, at abnormally low serum levels, HIDs (hyperimmunoglobulinemia D syndrome) results.

The proper functioning of proteins such as IgD keeps humans healthy.  If IgD does its job acceptably,  by activating  B cells to destroy antigens, the primary and secondary defenses will keep us healthy.  We will continue to get old.  We don’t have to be undesirably broken down and unhealthy, though.