(yelling)
- He's not gonna be able to.
(woman breathing shakily)
(woman breathing shakily) (footsteps thudding)
I love that they present this naive T cell
as if it's scared.
That's not what naive means.
It means that I was made within the bone marrow
and it's ready to protect us through our immune system.
This is our immune system, these T cells right here.
(intense adventurous music)
(monsters growling)
(yelling)
I'm gonna go ahead and guess
that these and infections chasing him.
I'm not quite sure which these are,
they look viral, but let's see.
(footsteps crunching)
(gasps)
(eerie music)
(yelling)
All right, so the influenza virus,
that's our typical flu that we see each season.
Now a lot of people like to say that the flu
is not a big deal, it's a huge deal.
There's over half a million flu deaths worldwide.
Something along the lines of anywhere from 30-50,000 deaths
here in the United States each season,
millions of people affected,
and the way that it affect you is really something cool,
I hope they show it in this show,
it's gonna be about literally,
the flu virus jumping in, hijacking your own
cellular machinery to help it replicate
within your body and infect you.
That's why it's like a zombie apocalypse going on right now.
(eerie music)
That is true that headaches, fevers, muscle aches
are the most common symptoms.
Now the influenza virus does affect both the upper
and lower respiratory tract,
so you can develop a very serious cough as well
as a sore throat, serious nasal congestion.
The most common way my patients describe it,
is usually like they've been hit by a train.
Cause the fatigue and body aches and fevers
are so uncomfortable.
That's really the hallmark symptom
that you get with a flu.
What happens when the virus actually enters your body.
It enters through a lock and key mechanism,
enters the cell nucleus,
which is sort of the brain of the cell,
and starts hijacking the cell's own machinery
to copy itself and then infect the rest of the body.
Now your body's defense system,
like this neutrophil and the T cell here,
as well as B cells and macrophages,
they all jump in, in defense of your body,
to try and eliminate this virus.
But here's where it gets tricky.
Your own cells are infected with this flu virus,
so these macrophages actually have to eat
your own body's cells in order for you get better.
And as you can already tell where I'm going with this,
if they have an overreaction,
especially in severe influenza cases,
that could be lethal on its own,
where your own body's inflammatory process
that's meant to protect you actually harms you.
Whoa.
(crowd groaning)
(metal clanging)
Uh oh.
(adventurous music) (laughing)
Oh, the macrophage is here.
So the macrophage, I think macro,
this is like a Greek term.
Macro means big, phag or phago means to eat in Greek,
so it's literally a big eater
where it eats up the virus or infected cells
by the virus and there's actually two types of macrophages.
One that causes destruction and inflammation,
which is good to fight the virus.
Then there's a second type of macrophage
that actually causes tissue repair.
(dramatic music)
(air whooshing)
(laughing) (light happy music)
Whoa.
The macrophage itself, when it consumes a part
of an infected cell, it's able to tell the other parts
of the immune system like the T cells and B cells
of what kind of virus is infecting the body.
That's really important in cell-mediated immunity,
where you body can actually create a memory
so that if you're infected with this virus again,
your body knows how to combat it.
(phone ringing)
When we're talking about the different types,
the influenza A, B, and C.
A is really the most dangerous cause it has the most
pandemic potential, meaning that it could spread
and cause serious harm.
In fact, the major outbreaks like the Spanish flu of 1918,
swine flu, avian flu, those were types of influenza A
that were devastating on populations.
With this patient slash imaginary body,
having influenza B, mm, it's a little bit easier.
(dramatic music)
(gasps)
(laughing)
This is the most bullying I've ever encountered
in a workplace setting.
This looks like a toxic environment to work in.
(yelling) (dramatic music)
(electronic warbling)
(groaning)
This is really interesting.
So the infected cells remember,
are actually hijacked by the influenza virus,
therefore, producing more infected cells
or infected particles of the virus that infect other cells.
What's really interesting about the influenza virus
is that scientists have recently found out
that it's able to hide itself from our immune system
and we're trying to make strides in figuring out
how it does that, not only for us to be able to counter
the influenza virus better, but also learn
about how it is we can protect ourselves
from our own immune system when it's over activated.
Think about those individuals who suffer from autoimmune
disorders, where their own immune system affects
their intestines, their skin,
like Crohn's disease or psoriasis.
If we can figure out how the influenza virus
hides from our immune system,
we can use that same principle to shut down
the autoimmune issues that we can have.
(gasps) (adventurous music)
(yelling)
Oh no, it's infecting other cells!
(yelling)
(air whooshing)
One of the crazy parts about having influenza
is you may be infected with it and spreading it,
up to 24 hours before you even feel symptoms.
So think about it.
I could be totally fine, meaning not showing any symptoms,
sneeze and be passing the influenza virus to someone
right next to me.
Really problematic, right?
(crashing)
(gasps)
(footsteps thudding)
(metal clanging)
Whoa. (metal clanging)
(upbeat dramatic music)
I think it's a "Dragon Ball Z" character.
There we go.
(metal clanging)
(air whooshing)
B cells!
So just so you understand the whole process of this.
When pathogens enter the body, they are labeled
as antigens and they're recognized by either
the T cells or B cells and then your body creates
antibodies to fight off these antigens.
Now you actually have memory B cells in your body
which remember past viruses that you've been infected with,
and have already an immune response ready for it.
For example, if you get two vaccinations
for the measles shot, like you're supposed to,
you have immunity for pretty much the rest of your life,
like 98% immunity.
If you get chicken pox once in your life,
you have enough antibodies for the rest of your life.
So the way that this works is your body gets infected,
your immune system recognizes it.
It fights it off, but also catalogs the infection
to know what to do if it returns in the future.
(upbeat dramatic music)
(groaning)
(yelling) (sizzling)
So an important part of your immune system
is actually raising the core body temperature
which is called a fever,
but it's actually important for your body
to be able to fight off infections.
Not only does your immune system in certain cells
function better when the temperature's higher,
but the virus has trouble replicating
when the temperature's higher,
so it decreases its effectiveness and spread.
Also B cells release cytokines,
which actually facilitate the inflammatory process,
helping your body rid itself of the virus,
but those cytokines, those inflammatory cells,
actually increase your body's temperature.
That's part of their roles.
(upbeat dramatic music)
(explosion blasting) (loud sneezing)
(loud sneezing)
(coughing)
(loud sneezing)
The reason your body has a sneeze and cough reflex
is to rid itself of a lot of these pathogens.
The way that actually they enter your body
is usually from respiratory droplets
being in the air or if you touch some
of them that have landed on a solid surface
and then introduce them
by rubbing your eyes, nose, or mouth.
That's why we always say our fingers and the dirtiest
parts of our bodies and we have to wash our hands.
Now you heard me chest compressions,
chest compressions, chest compressions.
But I think nowadays we should be saying,
wash your hands (laughs) was your hands,
wash your hands.
(yelling)
(intense music)
(thudding)
(yelling)
This is such a great picture of the war torn city.
It's something that I often times try and explain
to my patients that come in because they have a lingering
couch, even once the infection has cleared.
This happens all the time.
It's called a post-viral cough
or post-viral tussive syndrome.
Really what happens is you have a war between an infection
and your body's immune system.
Now your body's immune system has won the war.
You're not longer infected, you're no longer contagious,
but think about the battlefield
and the battlefield is your airway.
It's severely inflamed, just like what was visualized
right there in the city.
It takes time to heal all of that.
What happens when your airway's damaged?
You body secretes mucus,
you don't feel good,
it feels difficult to fall asleep.
You cough, even though you don't have an active infection.
So it takes time to calm the body's immune system.
It takes time to heal.
That's why it's no surprise if you've had a serious
flu infection, that one to two weeks later,
you're still feeling run down.
You body's healing.
(groans) (adventurous music)
(yelling) (footsteps crunching)
He's not gonna be able to.
(silly bouncing)
(smacking) (yelling)
Aha!
Cause he didn't have help from his naive T cell
or a macrophage to tell him how to fight this virus.
(air whooshing)
But the B cell.
(whimpering)
(electronic echoing)
It's a new virus.
(gasps)
Influenza A.
(intense dramatic music)
(squishing)
(yelling)
So this requires the immune system cascade
to start all over again
with the neutrophils, the macrophage,
the presenting cells, the memory cells,
everything has to start from scratch.
You can't just reuse the same immune reaction
that you had to one virus for the other one.
Sometimes there's crossover, but not every single time.
This is why we still recommend that if you have a flu
during the season but haven't gotten your flu shot,
once you get better, you can still get the flu shot
and get benefit from it.
(intense dramatic music)
(high pitched air slicing)
(yelling)
The biggest difference we see with the influenza virus
and other viruses that are circulating right now.
I don't wanna say the name
cause I'm gonna get demonetized just for saying it once,
but for the flu, we have an influenza vaccine
that not only prevents it in a certain percentage
of the time, but also if you are to get the vaccine
and still get sick, you'll have a milder course.
But the biggest thing is we have an anti-viral medication
that is FDA-approved to treat and prevent the spread
of the influenza virus.
It's called Oseltamivir
and we use it quite regularly in my practice.
Actually, if there's a nursing home
where you have an outbreak of the flu,
we can proactively, prophylactically treat
the patients who are healthy to not get sick.
Now, if there's another virus,
one that's going around right now,
still don't wanna say it.
We don't have those tools, it can be quite lethal.
So we wanna act smart and the way we do that is we wash
our hands to limit the spread,
we don't touch our face to limit the spread.
If we're sick, we stay home.
If we see someone sick, we try and stay far away from them.
And most importantly, we stay alert, not anxious.
I put together a playlist for you guys
of some informative videos about some viruses
that are circulating right here.
Hope you enjoy them while staying happy and healthy.
(upbeat hip music)