Immune: Yeah, he was like sneezing and had this runny nose
like a cause all that, girl. Hold on. I'm a call you back?
Okay.
Tina: Thank you for showing up today immune system
Immune: What's going on?
Tina: Some of your colleagues here have a few
concerns. Please, join us.
Immune: Is this an intervention?
Nose: You're killing us.
Immune: I don't understand. I'm just doing what I'm supposed to
do.
Eyes: You're making us allergic
Immune: To what?
Group: [*group complains about various allergies*]
Tina: OK Ok. Everyone, please calm down. Let's take a breath.
So, Immune System, what I'm hearing here is that everyone thinks
you're doing your job very well. But sometimes your passion for
doing your job very well sends you into hyperdrive, and that
can have some negative consequences for your colleagues
over here.
Immune: It's not my fault. They can handle it. I'm just doing my job
Eyes: You're not doing your job. You're completely overreacting
over harmless things.
Tina: You're both right. But let's unpack this. Why do we
have allergies even? Why are we like this?
Allergies happen when the immune system is a little
hypersensitive. Well, actually, there are four types of immune
hypersensitive responses, but we're only going to be focusing
on the type that's most commonly associated with allergies. What
sets this type of response apart is that it's mediated by a
special antibody called immunoglobulin E, or IgE. When
it's working properly, IgE identifies dangerous triggers
such as parasites, and tells the body to release histamine in
response. But sometimes it mistakes a relatively harmless
allergen as being dangerous. When this happens, histamine is
released anyway. Histamine is concentrated in the areas that
come into contact with the allergen, and it's what causes
those pesky symptoms.
Eyes: Here's the issue. Every single time I step outside, I
just start to cry because I see the beautiful grass and the
flowers
Skin: Hm Hm. I don't do grass
Eyes: And then I see the cute little bees
Skin: I don't do bees either.
Eyes: And then the pollen.
Skin: That'll do it, that'll do it. You don't have to worry
about me you do. That's how we get rashes.
Eyes: I just can't stop the tears from flowing from my eyes.
Tina: If an allergen gets into our eyes, they'll start to water
to wash the allergen out. Eyes: No, thank you.
Tina: If it's in our nose, it might get runny or we might
sneeze to get rid of it
Nose: hard pass on that.
Tina: And if it's in our gut, our body might try to expel that
threat using any means necessary
Gut: Zero out of 10.
Tina: I'll admit that none of these are pleasant. But they're
all your body reacting to the hard work of your immune system
to get rid of something that it deemed a threat.
Immune: That's right. I work hard, eliminating all threats.
Tina: It's just that when the allergen isn't actually a
threat, but a normal part of everyday life, the solution
becomes the problem. And our allergic response causes us more
trouble than the allergen ever would have.
And for everyone here, that can feel really hard.
Group: Yeah!
So thank you all so much for being vulnerable. And for being
here. I hold space for you. And I hear you. Skin, it looks like
you have something to say.
Skin: Yeah, I do. Look, I don't care if it's immune system, the
nervous system, the solar system. All I know is every time
you eat something—rash. Every time you see something, "oH,
tHiS WiLL bE NiCe tO pUt oN,"— I break out! And every time you
get close enough to take a big sniff—I itch. See, mh mhh, see
that's why I don't even do gatherings like this. I don't
step foot out the house. Because the immune system is always
overreacting! I have to pay the price! Why can we just stop
reacting? Why does it have to be like this?
Tina: Why does it have to be like this? Why do we even have
allergies in the first place? Well, imagine you have two
options, a an immune system and some unpleasant side effects or
B, no unpleasant side effects, but also no immune system, which
do you think evolution would pick?
Group: B!
Tina: Okay, good effort. But no, if we had no immune system, we
wouldn't even live long enough to enjoy the lack of allergies
because actual threats would slip through. And we all know
what happens then.
Immune: You gotta protect the body from everything. Constant
vigilance.
Skin: Nah mh mhh. Too vigilant.
Tina: Protecting our body from external threats is something
that has been crucial to life since the beginning for almost
as long as there have been cells there have been other things
trying to get into it and attack those cells. This is why all
organisms today from tiny prokaryotes to humans have built
in systems for recognizing and eliminating threats. In this
original, unrefined system. The method for detecting a threat
was fairly simple. Everything that was part of a cell had a
tag that said supposed to be here, and everything that wasn't
part of that cell didn't have that tag. Focusing on the IgE
response. This likely evolved to protect us against worms and
parasitic arthropods. These parasites are too large to be
dealt with through or other immune processes. So the IgE
immune response would have been a great way to get rid of them
specifically and a great feature for natural selection to keep
around on. Unfortunately, IgE does sometimes misidentify
things that are pretty harmless because they share some
similarities with things that it evolved to defend us against.
For example, shellfish.
Gut: Love selfish. Till I like don't. Cause of you.
Immune: Shellfish is dangerous
Tina: Shellfish isn't dangerous but it kind of looks like
something that is. The most common cause of shellfish
allergy is our body's response to the protein tropomyosin.
Tropomyosins are a family of proteins that are found in
muscle tissues. They play a role in muscle contraction and
relaxation. Tropomyosins can also be allergens. When they're
recognized in an infection by the parasite Schistosoma
Mansoni. They set off the IgE response. This is a good thing
because it helps people fight off schistosomiasis, the disease
caused by this parasitic worms. However, tropomyosin in other
species like shellfish can be misidentified because of their
similarity to tropomyosin in parasitic worms. But obviously
not everyone is allergic to shellfish. So why does this
response happen in some but not others? Shellfish allergies, as
well as other food allergies like egg and milk allergies are
thought to have a genetic and environmental component. The
genes that cause the allergic response are encoded in our DNA.
However, scientists think that the direct cause of food
allergies is related to a person's exposure to allergens.
This includes the timing and amount of exposure to the
allergen. Scientists know that the cause for food allergies
isn't purely genetic, because there's been a rise in food
allergies around the world. And this increase haven't been
matched by changes in people's genes.
Gut: I got something to say. You know, I wasn't even bout to come
to this thing, for real but, you know, things aren't the same
anymore. I used to be able to eat a whole tub of ice cream, a
whole personal pizza, and a six scrambled egg omelet. But now,
nothin's the same.
Immune: You're so full of—
[fart noises]
It's not my fault that the protein in the milk and the
cheese and ice cream and whatever else y'all like to eat
sets me off. I'm just doing my job. I'm trying to keep us safe.
And all of you being angry at me?
Fine. I want to my job. I quit.
Group: No!
Tina: No one is saying not to do your job. Your job is very
important. We realize that you're probably monitoring a lot
of different things. You've done a lot of growing and evolving
and you're still learning while it can be frustrating for
everyone here. It's a good thing that we're expressing our
feelings. But we also want to help you get it right, so that
everyone can be happy.
Immune: So what you're saying is that I should protect everyone,
but not too much. Attack threats, but not attack too
much. Defend, but don't defend too much. What do you want from
me? I'm just trying to my best and I don't know where to start.
Tina: Okay, so let's help you start.
There are a number of ways that we can manage our body's
response to allergies. The first and easiest way is to avoid our
allergens wherever we can. So if you're allergic, maybe avoid
shellfish. And no matter how soft that cat looks, don't pet
it.
Eyes: But it looks so fluffy.
Tina: While it can be hard to keep the immune system from Miss
identifying allergens, we can help with the response.
Histamine one of the key chemicals released during an
allergic response can be calmed down. Antihistamines can block
our body's histamine receptors and prevent histamine from
binding and causing an allergic reaction. So whether over the
counter or by prescription antihistamines can calm down the
body's response, keeping you from a runny nose and itchy
rashes.
Nose: I'll take 10 of those.
Tina: Another option is immunotherapy, which aims to
address the immune system directly and teach it to be
tolerant to whatever particular allergens bothers you. Two types
of allergy immunotherapy exist: one is injected, and the other
is dissolved under the tongue, but both rely on a similar
mechanism. The goal is to change the immune system's response so
that it no longer reacts to whatever you're allergic to. As
a result, even when we finish treatment, our immune system
should remain calm.
Immune: I can do that.
Eyes: That all sounds pretty doable. I just want all of us to
get along together like the good old days and just go to happy
hour and do karaoke.
Skin: Now. Think about it. Yeah, remember that time that virus
got in and like, shut everything down. Immune system, you were
there for us. Really held it down.
Nose: One time I got a piercing and it got all infected and
stuff. I wouldn't never known the silver wasn't my color if it
weren't for you.
Tina: Okay, I feel like we're really getting somewhere. Our
immune system and the pathways that lead to allergic responses
to a lot of good for us and science can help us train those
systems so they stay focused on doing the good work that they
do. We just all need to get together and understand how it
works, and learn to tackle these allergens as a team. Thank you
all for showing up today and for being so vulnerable.
Eyes: Group hug?
Skin: Oh mh mhm. I don't do hugs.
Immune: Oh, come on
Gut: Nobody use the bathroom for like 30-45 minutes.
Nose: You're killing us.
One time I got my nose pierced— wait, is that right?
I would have known that like silver wasn't my metal my—
Tina: schistosoma mansoniiiiiiii
Eyes: you're overreacting constantly over just harmful—
harmless— harmful? harmless. *giggles*
You're not doing your job you're completely
*giggles*
Skin: Taylor come on Taylor. Come on Taylor!