Cancer cells know they’re bad. Determined to raise hell, cancer cells furtively propagate through the body.
T cells are the warriors in a body’s immune system, targeting themselves via intel from B cells, which look for untoward molecular changes in cellular activity.
T cells are unrelentingly fierce. They will keep killing cells until commanded to stop. Their exuberance is shown by inflammation.
Proteins on the surface of the T cells – immune checkpoint receptors – are the receivers of commands to stand down. This regulating mechanism prevents symptoms of inflammation from lasting too long and getting out of control. Symptoms of uninhibited inflammation include redness, swelling, and fever.
Cancer cells take advantage of inflammation mechanisms to render the body helpless while the cancer multiplies. A certain signaling protein (SHP2) binds to the immune checkpoint receptors in 2 specific places after being activated by a signal from cancer cells. This double binding by SHP2 provides camouflage to cancer cells by switching off T cell activity. The immune system is lamed, letting cancer run wild.
Cancer cells are bodily cells that become deranged and sociopathic from bad diet and nasty habits. They then use stunning cunning to recruit other cells to join their nefarious cause. The more you know about cytology (the study of cells), the more obvious it becomes that cells, and even proteins (which are incredibly intricate macromolecules) are aware (have consciousness) and know exactly what they are doing (have sophisticated minds).
The words spoken by proteins and cells are molecular, with ionized accents. Proteins and cells share an intricate common language with vernaculars.
Microscopic phenomena illustrate how intelligence is entangled through life at every level, and suggest that Nature is foremost an energetic performance, with materiality a mirage of play-acting.
Sources:
Marasco et al, “Molecular mechanism of SHP2 activation by PD-1 stimulation,” Science Advances (31 January 2020).
“How the immune system becomes blind to cancer cells,” Medical Xpress (31 January 2020).
Ishi Nobu, The Science of Existence, BookBaby (2019).