Why does the immune system react in that way; what causes it to act irregularly when it shouldn’t?
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Well cytokines are in positive feedback loop where they latch onto rogue bandits to alert other WBCs to attack and then this attack causes more cytokines to be released which causes more WBCs to be attacked and produced which causes more cytokines… over and over again, the reason it acts this way is because it’s a simple way to make sure something happens, in this case the removal of a foreign invader
an easier explanation of positive feedback is contractions in pregnancy where pressure against the uterus causes a muscle contraction which in turn puts pressure on the uterus causing contractions over and over until the baby is out and no more pressure is there. When it works properly it’s great
We’re not completely clear as to why the body overreacts to certain things, anaphylaxis and deadly peanut allergies are also immune overreactions, but the main theories right now have to do with human genetics. There’s different kinds of cytokine storms caused by different things and a few of them, the more common ones, tend to occur because the WBCs that should kill a bacterium and release cytokines fail to kill and instead keep just doing the second half of releasing them
Anyways that’s my explanation someone might have some more specifics or better info tho!
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