The Medicinal mushroom Shiitake has shown to have the ability to boost our immune systems modulating response. Allowing the body to activate the immune system as required and then to return to a state of harmony once the job is complete. This has been shown to increase our immune systems' ability to protect us.
The innate immune system is the first line of defense in the human body. It is governed by the interplay between pro-and anti-inflammatory cytokine and macrophages. This response is critical to our health and well being. Macrophages from the first line of defense against pathogens or foreign enteritis entering the body.
Think as your innate immune system as police on a highway with a radar gun, it registers every vehicle that goes past and reacts to the ones going over the speed limit. Your innate immune system watches every chemical structure that goes past it. As it registers viruses, bacteria, etc that we have had before it is not triggered off as we have antibodies to these so they cannot harm us. When it recognizes something new that we have no antibodies to, it initiates the immune system to go after the attack and then destroy them to protect us.
This is done by the activation of macrophages that induce the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines such as TNF-α and IL-6, which are followed by the secretion of anti-inflammatory cytokines. The pro-inflammatory cytokines have protective roles in acute inflammatory responses. This allows the body to boost the immune system to attack and destroy foreign entities as they enter the body protecting us from these harmful pathogens. Once this job is completed then it has the ability to return back to a harmonious state until required again.
Referance: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31697749/The