I was thinking about how vaccines work (traditionally). One person gets sick, survives, we harvest their antigens, and then we replicate those antigens out to teach the immune systems of others. And all of this we discovered through people who had regular contact with…cows?
What exactly are these people doing with cows? Are they sharing needles with Ol’ Bessy?
And then I thought, well there must be a way for antigens to move around, being secreted through our fluids, and be absorbed through our various membranes. It would actually, probably, have been useful in evolution if antigens were passed around in families - like through saliva, then when someone has survived a bout of illness and mom and dad start getting kissy-faced again, they’re able to trade some immunity.
Any merit to this idea? I know that we test for antigens in saliva, so definitely they’re there. But, can we pass them on effectively, in much the same way that we swap diseases?
Antigens are the part of any virus bacteria, fungus, etc that causes your immune system to mount a response. Part of that response is often the production of antibodies, which is one way our body can attack and kill bacteria or virus-infected cells. The presence of antibodies indicate a past infection, and what type of antibody can tell you if it’s recent or long ago.
Originally, milkmaids were found to have protection against smallpox by harmless exposure to cowpox. The first vaccinations (from vaca- cow) were purposefully exposing humans to cowpox virus by rubbing the seepage from the cowpox sores on people’s skin.
Later, we used purified pathogens in injections, either dead or weakened virus/bacteria, so it caused the immune response without causing disease.
After that, some vaccines were made from just the parts of viruses/bacteria that were identified as the part our immune system recognized (antigen). Fewer side effects and often a more robust response.
Covid vaccine now uses mRNA, the piece of genetic information that directs a cell to make a specific viral antigen. Viruses work by using their genetic material to take over our cells and make more viruses, so this is a similar process.
D’oh, I forgot about cowpox. You’re right, they’re swapping it like a disease because it is a disease (similar to the one being protected against) that’s getting passed around.
I’m not sure on the antibody/antigen part though… I started by writing antibodies, double-checked Wikipedia and it said that antibodies are the warrior cells that go in and destroy disease. Memory cells are the ones who keep track of seen diseases by carrying around what I understood (the wording in the article wasn’t clear) to be antigens. I feel like that’s confirmed by this description of a vaccine:
It’s complicated (this is what I teach and it’s legit complicated).
There are cells calls Antigen Presenting cells, which digest the invading pathogens and take bits of them and anchor the bits (antigens) to the outside of their cells. These cells then trigger other cells to create antibody producing cells and long term memory cells, which is part of the immune which is part of the immune response. Memory cells will produce antibodies very quickly the next time the body sees the pathogen (both are B cells).
Other cells, T cells, are cells that direct attack invading pathogens, cancer cells. They also create memory cells for future responses.
On the other hand, you can take antibodies from someone who’s already recovered from the disease, and use them to treat others. It’s extremely expensive, of course, since you need blood donations from multiple survivors to treat one new patient, but it’s done sometimes in extreme cases.
I do believe that I wrote correctly for my intent but the real question would still just be whether there’s any way to trade immunity with close ones (e.g. through kissing)?
I don’t see any studies on the subject one way or the other. We do secrete antibodies (and antigens) into our saliva, so kissing, gleeking, sharing drinks, etc. would provide a path. But it’s not clear if anyone has ever researched the question, from a light Google.
