March 26, 2012

An "Off Switch" Within Our Immune System?


Did you ever think it would bepossible for our immune system to be turned off? A new “off switch” has been identified by scientists from Trinity College Dublin. There is a certain protein, TMED7, which can “turn off” part of the immune system. With the ability to turn off the immune system we are able to boost our immune response. TMED7 is the first of the family of proteins that it’s a part of that helps regulate out immune system.
If we are able to shut down our immune response, it would help prevent our immune system from attacking our bodies.  This protein could be beneficial to us when receiving vaccines. Often times when vaccines are received, our immune systems don’t develop a strong response to the vaccine which basically defeats the purpose of the vaccine.  

7 comments:

Jenai said...

An on and Off switch is crazy!! Its interesting how your body can do this and still be able to function.

Shan said...

On & off? that is crazy. Soon we might even be able to turn it on and off ourselves haha

KTress said...

Wow this is really interesting. This could also be really helpful for people who receive organ transplants so that their bodies don't reject the organ!

acavz said...

i agree with all of you so cool and it can help in the medical field a whole lot!

vas said...

I was about to say what Kevin did, this is really going to be helpful with complicated surgeries like that.

Valerie said...

Maybe this could be used to help certain vaccines be administered in the future.

Fariha said...

How can turning off our immune system boost immune responses?