• Question: if there was a serum of somesort to enchance a humans imune system to defend it's self from diseases could it be used for another purpose or be abused to be used for something else??

    Asked by devanparmar to Lyn, Katy, Paul, PB, Ruth on 21 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Peter Balfe

      Peter Balfe answered on 21 Jun 2013:


      The immune system does definitely vary and by quite a lot. Mostly it’s pretty effective, good diet, exercise, all help keep it that way. A magic potion as you describe is unlikely, but it’d be nice!

    • Photo: Ee Lyn Lim

      Ee Lyn Lim answered on 21 Jun 2013:


      Our immune system is pretty effective! I think it’s probably about as effective as it can be – if it was any more aggressive it would start attacking our own cells, and cause autoimmune disease. The whole system is very finely balanced!

      What we can do is use vaccines! That’s not enhancing the WHOLE immune system – it’s just giving the immune system a head start against certain types of diseases. We get an injection of very weak bacteria or viruses, which won’t harm you, but which the immune system will pick up, so that it will be well prepared when the infection happens for real.

      Another thing we can do, which is what my research is about, is when we find that there’s a disease that’s too strong for the immune system to get rid off on its own (like cancer) we can give it a bit of help. One of the ways to do this is to give the body MORE immune cells – we take a few cells out of the body, grow them into millions of cells in the lab, feed them some cancer cells so they know what they’re looking for, and then inject them back into the body. Or – what I’m personally trying to do is to find the cells that the cancer is using to protect itself (those cells can stop immune cells from doing their job) and knock them out with a drug, so that the cancer can’t hide from the immune system anymore.

      So I don’t think we could really invent a ‘magic potion’ that would defeat all diseases, because I think the immune system actually already knows what it’s doing. I can’t think of any way that vaccines could be used for a bad purpose, so even if we could have a magic potion, I’m not sure how it could be abused, either!

    • Photo: Ruth Mitchell

      Ruth Mitchell answered on 23 Jun 2013:


      I think that Peter and Lyn have answered the question that a magic potion like you are talking about is probably unlikely – I agree with this.

      But talking hypothetically, it would mean that a person wouldn’t get any diseases so this could be used for going into a really infectious zone and helping sick people out without having the fear of getting infected yourself. But on the other hand it could be used to some pretty harmful things to yourself without your body reacting to it.

      The immune system is our friend and keeps us healthy. When it goes wrong either way, too weak or too strong, it could potentially be harmful.

    • Photo: Paul Waines

      Paul Waines answered on 25 Jun 2013:


      The immune system needs a little help sometimes, depending on the disease. However, it mainly does a pretty good job and can cope with most diseases eventually. I suppose if this serum had other properties which meant that we could use it in a dishonest way, then I’m sure some bad people would take advantage, but I think this is unlikely

    • Photo: Katy Brown

      Katy Brown answered on 25 Jun 2013:


      Also, its possible for your immune system to be too strong! Autoimmune diseases like MS happen when your immune system starts to attack your body and causes damage.

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