Immune : a journey into the mysterious system that keeps you alive / Philipp Dettmer.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction -- Part 1. Meet your immune system. What is the immune system? ; What is there to defend? ; What are your cells? ; The empires and kingdoms of the immune system -- Part 2. Catastrophic damage. Meet your enemies ; The desert kingdom of the skin ; The cut ; The soldiers of the innate immune system: macrophages and neutrophils ; Inflammation: playing with fire ; Naked, blind, and afraid: how do cells know where to go? ; Smelling the building blocks of life ; The invisible killer army: the complement system ; Cell intelligence: the dendritic cell ; Superhighways and megacities ; An aside: The spleen and the tonsils- super-lymph node best friends ; The arrival of the superweapons ; The largest library in the universe ; Cooking tasty receptor recipes ; The murder university of the thymus ; Presenting information on a gold platter: antigen presentation ; Awakening the adaptive immune system: T cells ; Weapon factories and the sniper rifles: B cells and antibodies ; The dance of the T and the B ; Antibodies ; An aside: The four classes of antibodies -- Part 3. Hostile takeover. The swamp kingdom of the mucosa ; The weird and special immune system of your gut ; What is a virus? ; The flu- the "harmless" virus you don't respect enough ; Chemical warfare: interferons, interfere! ; An aside: The difference between the flu and the common cold ; The window into the soul of cells ; The murder specialists- killer T cells ; Natural killers ; How a viral infection is eradicated ; An aside: Why don't we have better medication against viruses? ; Shutting the immune system down ; Immune- how your immune system remembers an enemy forever ; An aside: What doesn't kill you doesn't make you stronger: measles and memory cells ; Vaccines and artificial immunization -- Part 4. Rebellion and civil war. When your immune system is too weak: HIV and AIDS ; When the immune system is too aggressive: allergies ; Parasites and how your immune system might miss them ; Autoimmune disease ; An aside: Anergy ; The hygiene hypothesis and old friends ; How to boost your immune system ; Stress and the immune system ; Cancer and the immune system ; An aside: Smoking and immune system ; The coronavirus pandemic ; A final word.

"Although everyone who has ever had a cold is familiar with the human immune system and its importance, few understand just how complex and intricate the immune system is. In Immune, Internet creator and storyteller Philipp Dettmer takes readers on a journey through the fortress of the human body and its defenses. There is a constant battle raging just under our skin, full of stories of invasion, strategy, defeat, and noble self-sacrifice. In fact, in the time you've been reading this, your immune system has identified and eradicated multiple cancer cells that started to grow in your body. Enlivened by engaging full-color graphics and immersive descriptions, Immune turns one of the most intricate, interconnected, and pervasive subjects in biology--immunology--into a gripping adventure through an alien landscape. Touching on our body's defenses, the types of adversaries we face (including a chapter on the coronavirus), and the grave consequences of immune malfunction, Immune is a vital crash course in what is arguably, and increasingly, the most important system in the body"-- Provided by publisher

General readers.