RESEARCHING THE MOLECULE
Decoding the inflammation pathogens
They arrive with hostile intent and initially try to stay as inconspicuous as possible: ultimately, however, they cannot disguise their true "identity". Bacteria - the intruders to which the human body's response is inflammation. To destroy them as quickly as possible. For this the microbes must be recognized as such. The human immune system can already do that at its birth. That's because the inflammation pathogens have one unalterable characteristic: their skeleton.
This, the bacteria's supporting straitjacket, is precisely what the human defense machine is trained to recognize from the very start: it identifies the strangers by that characteristic feature that they cannot change, since they would then no longer be viable. Highly specialized sensors - the human cell's receptors - use this alone to locate the invaders and really dock onto the microbes to check them out. Once the stranger is identified as such, hunted down so to speak, the cell makes its report. This puts the destruction program into gear - aggressive chemical messengers attack the bacteria: inflammation.
Picture gallery molecule (14 images)
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The skilful torturers - bacteria and viruses
The location system is as discriminating as it is perfect: not one single bacterial cell escapes the alert immune watchdogs. But occasionally the defenders that then come into action are no match for their opponents. For example there are bacteria that cleverly encapsulate themselves or band together with their own kind to form an impenetrable protective armor. This reinforced outer shell then makes it difficult even to locate the straitjacket present inside. Sometimes the immune system's weapons are no longer sufficient to destroy the thick-skinned microbes afterwards - and the pathogens can carry on murderous trade. The possible consequences: pneumonia, meningitis or septicemia. That's how a local inflammation turns into an infection. To enable these life-threatening illnesses to be combated from the very start, the structures of even the particularly stubborn inflammatory pathogens must be resolved down to the smallest detail - each individual molecule.
Technical literature for further reading: