From terra firma to terra plana – danger is shaking the foundations: deconstructing the ‘immune system’

Abstract 

The paradigm of animmune systempresumes that a system arose specifically to combat infection – hence its name. This paradigm gained credibility with the discovery of antibodies and anamnestic immunity, even though these are relatively late arrivals in evolution. Another presumption has been that thymus-dependent T cells are responsible for discriminating self from non-self. Subsequent opinion has crystallized around these presumptions. This paradigm is flawed. Transforming it into amorphostatic systemresolves the problems. There is, arguably, no such thing as animmune system.

No full text is available. To read the body of this article, please view the PDF online.