Download Immunology!

Overview

Overview:

Aaaaahhhhhaaaaa.... Aaaaaaahhhhaaa...... AHHHAAAA CHOOOO! Sick again!? What the heck!? But don't let me hear you say, My immune system sucks - it's doing the best it can. My project is an attempt to prove that.

The idea is: throw a virus into a pool of healthy cells and watch what happens. In more detail, once the simulation beings the pathogens begin infecting their target cells which release cytokines, raising cells resistance and alerting macrophages to the scene, where they can phagocytize the infected cell - after which the macrophage travels to the red bone marrow, alerts the lymphocytes which produce cytotoxic T-cells which induce cell apoptosis in infected cells and plasma cells which produce antibodies which disable pathogens.

So basically it's as simple as that. If you didn't quite follow that and would like a thorough understanding of my project and your body's immune system, keep reading!

Biology Key Terms:

• Pathogen:  Any foreign invader inside of the body.
• Virus:  Viruses do not self replicate. They reproduce by invading a cell and making that cell produce copies of the virus.
• Apoptosis:  Apoptosis is programmed cell death. When a cell gets old or its presence disrupts homeostasis cytokines arrive with a message which reads: "kill yourself." What's scary is that they willingly comply!
• Cytokine:  Cytokines are messenger cells. In my simulation they will either increase infection resistance or alert white blood cells.
• Macrophage:  Macrophages are defensive white blood cells which destroy their prey by a process called phagocytosis. This basically means they engulf the target and digest.
• Lymphocyte:  Lymphocytes are a type of white blood cell which responds only to a specific pathogen. Lymphocytes are divided into B-cells and T-cells.
• B-cell:  For the purpose of my simulation, B-cell's sole purpose is to turn into plasma cells.
• Plasma cell:  Plasma Cells release antibodies, specific to a single type of pathogen, which disable pathogens.
• Antibody:  Antibodies bind onto pathogens and disable them - rending them useless.
• T-cell:  T-cells are divided into helper T-cells and cytotoxic T-cells.
• Helper T-cell:  Helper T-cells find pathogens and alert phagocytizers to its location. (they're basically glorified cytokines - I decided to leave them out of my simulation)
• Cytotoxic T-cell:  Cytotoxic T-cells dock to specific infected cells and release a protein into the cell which starts apoptosis - killing the infected cell along with the virus.

The Players:

	Red Blood Cell		Virus
	Macrophage		Cytokine
	Growth Factor Cytokines Released From Macrophage		Cytotoxic T Cell
	Plasma Cell		Antibody

Sequence of Events:

	Virus docks a red blood cell, soon it will start infecting		Infected cell releases cytokines, which a nearby macrophage recieves
	Macrophage phagocytizes the infected cell		Macrophage releases growth factor cytokines causing itself to replicate
	Macrophage leaves infection site to travel to red bone marrow where it will signal a specific response		Lymphocytes arrive at the infection site
	Cytotoxic Tcells dock infected cell and release an apoptosis protein, killing the virus infected cell		Plasma cells produce antibodies
	Antibodies dock virus cells and disable them, preventing them from infecting any other cells		The battle rages on

Instructions:

Key Commands:

• SPACE - pauses and resumes the simulation
•   '.'   - increases the speed of the simulation
•   ','   - decreases the speed of the simulation
•   'w'   - moves the camera forward along the camera vector
•   's'   - moves the camera forward along the camera vector
•   'a'   - strafe left
•   'd'   - strafe right

Camera Movement:

• middle mouse button - controls the viewing direction of the camera
• left mouse button - is a strafe in the plane perpendicular to the camera vector

Resources:

• Mader, Sylvia. Concepts of Biology. New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2009.
• cplusplus.com -- a decent article on polymorphism
• Swiftless Tutorials -- good compilation of tutorials, helped me early in the quarter
• Wikipedia's Sphereical Coordinate System Article -- helped me define a cell's position and movement vector