A recent story about a man on an airplane that was saved by a celebrity doctor has given rise to the news of a parasite (tick) that can make you allergic to red meats. "The "hygiene" hypothesis, now several decades old, suggests that with no parasites to fight, the immune system doesn't know when to quit and ends up targeting allergens." The symbiosis between parasites and humans is not well understood. Common allergens such as peanuts, bees, pets, and trees can be detected within the immune system while parasites are not. The fact that our bodies do not deal with every parasite suggests that the body purposely does not hurt specific parasites by turning this response off. Another theory could be that parasites have unique methods to alter their host's immune system. The relationship between a parasite-fighting immune system and the cause of an allergen must come down to similarity within the molecule composition and protein structure. "Using blood serum from parasite-infected people in Ghana, experimental studies finally revealed the first known example of a pollen-like protein present in a parasitic worm that gets targeted by IgE." The results reveal that immunotherapy may prove to be useful as long as the allergen-causing protein.
Comments
quotes
first there are some confusing quotations in the beginning of the paragraph, if the statement beginning with "the hygiene hypothesis" is a direct quote as it seems to be implying, then the source of that quote should be listed after the statement (not just as a link in the bottom)
Clarity
This is such a cool topic, thank you for discussing it! I was wondering if you could give more clarity to the following theory, "The fact that our bodies do not deal with every parasite suggests that the body purposely does not hurt specific parasites by turning this response off". I have hard time understanding what you mean by that.
this is really interesting
This is really interesting!
However, I don't really understand how the first sentence relates to the rest of the paragraph. If it's in the first sentence, it would be best to have something in the rest of the paper that explains exactly how the topic relates back to the first sentence.