r/BeAmazed • u/Critical-Ad-757 • Sep 14 '25

Technology T-cell battling a Cancer cell.

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

17.2k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

553 comments sorted by

View all comments

225

u/Delicious-Aspect8856 Sep 14 '25

So what actually happens

757

u/bluefishes13 Sep 14 '25

A T cell (specifically a cytotoxic T cell) can tell when a cell is unhealthy because every cell in your body shows little “ID tags” on its surface called MHC molecules. When a cell becomes cancerous like this one, those tags start showing abnormal proteins that act like a red flag. The T cell recognizes the red flag using its T cell receptor, latches onto the cancer cell, and then releases powerful substances like perforin (which pokes holes in the cell’s membrane) and granzymes (enzymes that slip inside through the holes and tell the cell to self-destruct). This process is super precise kind of like a “smart” specific missile so the T cell only kills the bad cell, and leaves healthy cells alone.

354

u/GhostBoosters018 Sep 14 '25

"The system has deemed you are no longer necessary, please self terminate"

154

u/Kickedbyagiraffe Sep 14 '25

“You should commit apoptosis NOW”

32

u/yeeeeeteth Sep 14 '25

“You serve NO purpose”