Paper 2

Nick Oropall

FYS-Jed Macosko

3/5/08

Chris Chemokine

It seemed as if order was finally restored and the body was safe once again. Chris Chemokine and the rest of the body had learned a lesson they would not soon forget. To fully understand the story we’ll have to start at the beginning, before the invasion…

The body was always a good place to live, and was pretty well protected so all the cells and other residents were able to live care free and do their jobs. A large reason why this worked so smoothly was Chris Chemokine. His job was perhaps the most important of all, because he had a large control over many cells including the immune system. Chris was in charge of telling the cells where to go, growing new blood vessels, and inflammatory action in order to protect against bacteria, viruses and heal wounds. Chris was smart, he was good looking, and he was very good at his job. None of this seems as if it would be a problem, but it was. The problem was Chris knew this all too well. He was the cockiest resident in the body and believed he was better than everyone else. This didn’t stop the citizens of the body from applying for jobs with Chris. Although he may be conceited at times, he was still very good at his job and everyone felt they could learn a lot from him. Every day there would be a line of people outside his office waiting for interviews, and every day they would be turned away. When it came to getting jobs done Chris never asked for help and would never accept it if it was offered. He thought he was too good for help, and that it could only bring him down. Truth was that he really had never needed help, until one day, the day that leads us onto our adventure.

Chris’ day began as every other day of his life began. He woke up and got ready for his day while he admired himself in the mirror. Chris headed over to his office and sure enough there was a line of eager citizens waiting to interview for an intern position with the famous Chris Chemokine. He grumpily told them all to go away and that he didn’t need any help. A few minutes later as they all reluctantly walk away with their heads down, the mob clears and one teenage resident is left standing alone. “I said I don’t need any help”, Chris said as he waved the boy off.

The boy refused to leave without saying a word. Chris threatened to call security, but still nothing. “I like your persistence, but I don’t need help from anyone, therefore I don’t need to help anyone”, Said Chris, trying to break the young mans spirit.The man in the doorway slowly walked away with his head down while Chris carried on with his day as usual

It’s amazing how he could just carry on his day without even thinking about that young man waiting for an interview. However, he managed to do it and the beginning of the day went as usual. There were a few minor scrapes that he had to lead the immune system cells to in order to induce the inflammatory response, and even a scare of some bacteria. But besides that the day ran smoothly and Chris felt on top of the world, as always. Even though he didn’t know that Chris’ day and even life were going to change, and he was going to learn a lesson he would never forget.

The body was a small town, people knew each other, and they knew each others business. When somebody did not belong, everyone knew it. That day there was a new person in the body, he introduced himself to everyone as Clyde Cancer. He seemed a little interesting and not too different looking yet there was something about him. Something made the citizens a little uneasy about Clyde. However, there was one person who was not at all bothered by or worried about Clyde. Of course, it was Chris Chemokine. Some of the people that were worried called Chris and asked if there was anything they should do or if there was anything he could do to help. Chris would simply shrug the people off because he thought they were overreacting and he didn’t think it was a problem. He had even met Clyde and thought he was a little interesting, but Chris was too blinded by himself to realize that something was about to go terribly wrong in the body.

Over the next few days weird things started to happen, and no one knew what the cause was. The population of the body was growing rapidly because cells were reproducing much faster than normal, and many of the cells were even much different looking than they normally do. Everyone was concerned and looked to Chris for help. After all it was his job to regulate many of the cells activities. The interesting thing was that during this period Clyde had gone in and talked to Chris many times about having him regulate these cells. However, Chris was convinced that Clyde was a normal cell.

The whole body went into panic mode and people were going crazy, no one knew what to do. These cells were growing a dividing so quickly that the population was going haywire. The townspeople begged Chris to watch Clyde, because this problem had occurred since the day he arrived in the body. Chris continued to refuse, he could never be wrong. He was convinced that Clyde was normal and that everyone was overreacting. In the meantime Chris was doing everything he could to keep this growth and division under control, but there was nothing he could do.

One day Chris suddenly realized that his worst nightmare was coming true. He woke up from his sleep one night to find Clyde Cancer using his abilities in order to divide cells more quickly. Everyone was right Clyde was behind the rapid cell division. Chris couldn’t believe he missed something like this. “But why was Clyde doing this?” Chris wondered.

Then it hit him. The cell divisions, the mutations and changed cells, it was all part of Clyde’s plan to take over the body. Clyde was causing the body to uncontrollably divide mutated cells and he had been using Chris the entire time without him knowing! Chris jumped up and confronted Clyde about the situation. “So what? If you figured me out” said Clyde. “I have been using you this entire time to aid in my evil plan and now there is nothing you can do to stop me. I even created a base of operations ‘The Tumor”. Chris was not quite sure what to do but he figured he could do what he always did, try to go out and save to body on his own, after all he was Chris Chemokine.

He started his normal routine to fix the body. He told the immune system cells where to go and what to do. He thought he was getting some progress done, but Clyde was right. He had already built an army, and his base was too powerful. Whenever he tried to help or fix something it only got worse, Clyde was using Chris to divide the cells and make more mutations. Nothing Chris could do would help, no matter how hard he tried Clyde’s army could withstand it.

Chris panicked, for the first time in his life he actually did not know what to do. What if Clyde was right, what if there really was nothing he could do and his evil plan was going to be a success? The whole body would die, and Chris would be the man responsible for it all. He should have listened to some people; he should have listened to everyone. For once in his life, Chris knew he needed help.

Then out of nowhere, as if it was a miracle, someone showed up. It was a young man who Chris recognized. It was the young man who stayed in the doorway in the morning. Chris asked what his name was, he responded “Alex Allostery.” Clyde didn’t seem too amused, He reiterated that he was using Chris in order to make new cells and no matter what he did the army would keep expanding and there was nothing that he nor this puny little man could do to stop him.

“Not so fast!” Alex exclaimed. He began to explain to Chris how he could block Clyde from using Chris to divide more cells. In order for Clyde to divide he needed to enter a specific place on Chris like a key into a keyhole. Once this “lock” was unlocked, he could use Chris as he pleased. Alex could enter Chris at a different point and this would change the shape of the keyhole Clyde and his troops needed to enter. Therefore, the key no longer fit the keyhole. It was brilliant. Once they could get Clyde to stop dividing they could take care of the rest of his troop on their own, as Chris normally did.

Alex’s plan worked to perfection and once Clyde could no longer divide, Chris was able to destroy the rest of his army using the immune system. The day was saved, and it was not only thanks to Chris, this time a lot of the thanks was due to someone else, Alex Allostery. The town of the body was so pleased with both of them that they threw them a celebratory parade of red blood cells. The most important part was that Chris had learned his lesson, and would never work without a partner again. His new partner was Alex Allostery.

Sources

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6WX3-47FFRNR-6&_user=793338&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000029698&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=793338&md5=f3499f79dd412feff9a72df931f91143

http://molpharm.aspetjournals.org/cgi/content/full/73/3/855

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allosteric

http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1747-0285.2006.00330.x

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemokine