How does our immune system identify between medicine or bacteria/viruses/infection/etc that gets into our body and decides the former can go through while the latter can’t? Do they ever misidentify?
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There are cells in your body that are part of your immune system, specially dedicated to fighting infection. They’re like your bloodstreams bouncers.
One of the types of cells ‘investigates’ “Helper T-cells” – like the bouncer checking your ID, and if they find a cell that it identifies as a threat, it’ll stick to it. Then the big boys, the “Cytotoxic T-cells” kill anything that’s been marked.
The whole identification process is extremely complicated, by TL;DR your body has a list, some of it is genetic and passed down from your parents, this is why hereditary immunity is a thing, and then it’s added to as your body encounters new things.
Yes, misidentification happens, in both directions.
When a harmless thing triggers your immune system, it usually just results in allergies.
But in some rare cases, your body can misidentify its own cells as foreign objects – this is what autoimmune disorders are.
And yes, sometimes some viruses/bacteria/whatever are so good at evading our immune system that they never trigger it at all. Ever hear about people who get Covid and spread it around but never have any symptoms or even know they had it? Their body didn’t identify infected cells as a threat, so no immune response, no fever, no runny nose, etc.
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