In this regard, the author credited the Italian anatomist Fabricius ab Aquapendente for his pioneering insight that the bursa beneath the tail of chickens, which now bears his name, is a constituent of the immune system. Ī major theme of the book is its portrayal of the scientists who contributed most to unravelling the secrets of the immune system. He was also similarly lucid in describing the interplay of chemical messengers such as cytokines and interleukins in triggering immune responses and generating fever (pages 46, 76-77, 90 and 114-137). The author also explored the other constituents of the immune system in this picturesque approach, clearly delineating the roles of such cells as macrophages, eosinophils, basophils, and monocytes.
In a similar way he referred to the B cell system as a highly-evolved ‘ infinity machine‘ which, pre-stocked with antibodies, has the capacity to target the rarest, the unimaginable, and the most unfathomable threats. To illustrate the complex workings of both the innate and adaptive components of the system, the author made imaginative use of vivid metaphors, such as when he referred to neutrophils, natural killer, and dendritic cells – the first line defensive cells – as ‘constituents of a fire brigade‘ when he characterised B cells and T cells as ‘the immune system’s most advanced fighters‘ and when he referred to the tree-like tentacles that dendritic cells use to present antigens to the T and B cells. The book’s characterisation of how the immune system wards off external and internal threats is very detailed. The book is also a graphic representation of the intricate signals and pathways that drive the critical activities of what is indeed an elegant defense (pages 6, 9, 43, 47, 71, 135 -139 and 153). The book also conveyed the sense of the improbable task the immune system accomplishes in maintaining a delicate balance between ‘what to attack and what to leave alone’, and in restraining itself from overreacting to the invading pathogens he referred to as ‘ brutal festival crashers‘. The book painted a picture of an elegant system which is ‘precisely and delicately tailored‘ to maintain a state of harmony, and which operates efficiently to detect and disable all levels of threats. Describing it as ‘one of the world’s most complex systems’, the author underscored its importance when he portrayed it as ‘the glue that defines the whole of human health and wellness‘. The subject of this book is the exquisite immune system and the constellation of disorders that manifest when it fails.
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