Cancer and the Natural Killer Cells

Hi, I’m Dr. Branyon, I had a few extra minutes and I thought, well turn the phone on and let’s do a quick video. 

This is something that is so exciting to me and I love it. I want to talk about the immune system, and how amazing it is. It works for us 24 hours a day, whether we’re sleeping, playing, happy, crying. Whatever we’re doing. It is searching out and trying to work for us. There are so many wonderful fighters, but I want to bring one up to you. That is one of my favorites. I do have favorite ones. And I do like putting personalities to each one of those immune system cells. Hey, it may sound crazy. But even Einstein says that we should use our imaginations. And I believe that if you can use your imagination, you can fight the invisible a lot better. 

So I want to talk about natural killer cells. Natural killer cells, well, science works constantly. And we’re getting more and more studies. And science continually grows. And it is amazing that it hasn’t been too long ago that they discovered the natural killer cells. But natural killer cells got their name in 1973. It’s amazing. (I’m older than the name of the natural killer cells. But I won’t go into that right now.) So in 1973, they discovered the natural killer cells, and the amazing abilities. And all the time, they’re coming up with more and more and more. 

Well, a normal healthy cell has a protective coating that secretes called… it’s a long word, but we’re going to abbreviate it. And it’s MHC1. This coating protects it. But an abnormal cell which a cancer cell is does not have that coating. What a cancer cell will do is it will secrete an enzyme HCG coating around each cell. And it will put on itself what they call tumor surface antigens. These tumor surface antigens are to protect itself. It’s kind of like the white knights and the black knights are fighting together. But those black knights are the antigens. Antigens are bad and antibodies are good. 

Well, the natural killer cells are in our white blood cells. And they are like I said, streaming around they’re looking, they have only one job to do. It’s an innate ability. They only got one purpose. And that is to serve their master, you and me and whoever. It’s to search out and when they find some cell that’s abnormal, they go in for the fight. Well, when they find where they need to go and do that fight, I want to say that these natural killer cells, and like I said earlier, I like to put personalities on them. They have like a stinger. It’s like a bee, they’ll come in, they’ll find that cancer cell. And they’ll check it out. They’ll sting it and they have these granules that are toxic or a serum and like a bee that bee sting will go in and sting us and release that serum and out it hurts. Well, the natural killer cell goes in and releases those toxic granules or serum, and it starts eating up inside that cancer, in order for it to start collapsing. 

Another way is they have found that the natural killer cells will go and they will bind to antibodies. Okay, remember I said cancer cells get what they call the tumor surface antigens. Now those tumor surface antigens are separate for each type of cancer, each person and in one video will talk about that. But no matter what kind of cancer it is, they will have tumor surface antigens. Well, antibodies are good, antigens are bad. Antibodies will go in and they will grab hold and try to pluck that tumor surface antigen off. But what happens is the natural killer cells will go in and bind to those antibodies, so when those antigens… antibodies go in and try to pluck off, the natural killer cells are actually helpers for that too. And it will help pluck it off, kill it off. That’s why they’re called natural killers. They’re magnificent. Once they go in, and they secrete their serum, that’s all it is. They will kill off and there’s a word called apoptosis, which means cell death. They’re amazing. And the good thing about it is you already have those within your body. Sometimes with a lowered immune system, compromised immune system, you don’t have enough to fight for that army as much as you would like. And that’s why killing off the cancer cells is a little tough. 

That’s why we work at the New Hope Unlimited to work on the immune system (kind of got my words tied up there). But in New Hope Unlimited, we work with the patient’s immune system to expand and help those natural killer cells along with the dendritic cells and cytotoxic cells, all of the white blood cells fighters, very very important. So I wanted to give you a little drama there and let you know that your natural killer cells, they know exactly who you are, exactly what’s happening in your body. They’re working so hard for you. And they’re wonderful. Thanks for listening. Hope to see you next time.