Word: bloodstreams
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...that was it. But physicians are finding that the old-fashioned ways of delivering medication can render treatment hopelessly ineffective -- even dangerous. Some people just forget to take pills, and repeated trips to the doctor for shots can be unpleasant and expensive. Tablets and injections can flood the bloodstream with drugs and disperse them unevenly through the system. And drugs can have toxic side effects. With an array of potent, highly specialized new therapeutic drugs on the market, scientists are busy developing a dazzling assortment of space-age techniques that promise to deliver the drugs to the body in safe...
...immune system. For reasons that are not yet clear, immune cells invade the pancreas and destroy the beta cells, which produce insulin. When this happens, the body cannot convert sugar into the energy that cells need to function. The cells starve, and the unconverted sugar builds up in the bloodstream, damaging the fragile lining of blood vessels. Complications associated with Type 1 diabetes include heart and kidney disease, poor circulation, eye problems and stroke...
...eventually kill enough cells to cause death. But the intruders soon encounter roving scavenger cells called phagocytes, which simply engulf and digest them. These defenders -- monocytes, neutrophils and macrophages -- secrete substances that dilate nearby blood vessels and make them more permeable, enabling even more defenders to get from the bloodstream to the infection site. Other proteins, those belonging to the complement system, aid in this process...
...responses of the immune system slow, then shut down. Scientists believe that still other immune specialists, known as suppressor T cells, call off the battle. As the carnage wanes, the B cells and T cells perform a last, vastly important task: they form memory cells that circulate in the bloodstream and lymph system for many years, primed to spring into action should the same strain of flu virus ever attack again. In addition, the body is protected by specialized antibodies, strategically deployed in mucus, saliva and tears, that immediately recognize any return of this particular virus...
...Magic is the bloodstream of the universe," goes the refrain in Willow, but the blood is tired this time. The old legerdemain may save a kingdom, but it can't save this movie and, maybe, the fantasy genre. The man who soared on the zeitgeist can sink when it changes. George Lucas has worked his magic before and surely will again. But for now, the wonder wand is broken...