The immune system: a weapon of mass destruction invented by evolution to even the odds during the war of the DNAs

Summary: Living systems operate under interactive selective pressures. Populations have the ability to anticipate the future by generating a repertoire of elements that cope with new selective pressures. If the repertoire of such elements were transcendental, natural selection could not operate because any one of them would be too rare. This is the problem that vertebrates faced in order to deal with a vast number of pathogens. The solution was to invent an immune system that underwent somatic evolution. This required a random repertoire that was generated somatically and divided the antigenic universe into combinatorials of determinants. As a result, it became virtually impossible for pathogens to escape recognition but the functioning of such a repertoire required two new regulatory mechanisms: 1) a somatic discriminator between Not‐To‐Be‐Ridded (‘Self’) and To‐Be‐Ridded (‘Non‐self’) antigens, and 2) a way to optimize the magnitude and choice of the class of the effector response. The principles governing this dual regulation are analyzed in the light of natural selection. Abstract A. ‘...doth protest too much’ E. Two classes of pathogen must be faced II. The NTBR–TBR discrimination A. The three laws of the NTBR‐TBR discrimination B. The mechanism of the NTBR‐TBR discrimination C. Facing the “chicken and egg” problem III. The regulation of effector class IV. The somatically selected immune repertoire A. The Protecton is the unit of function B. The humoral immune system C. The cell‐mediated immune system D. The meaning of specificity V. Why understand when you can cure without it? VI. Coda: Extracting the postulates used to explain immune behavior O.K. José! What would it take to change your mind? Mechkonik