Lay Version of New Article on How Trained Immunity Saves Lives

My goal in life was first at the age of 5 to cure cancer.

However, at my first annual physical in my early 20’s given by an overly obese M.D. who puffed on cigarettes and whose office reeked (and I wondered where they found a chair large enough to sit this person), I realized allopathic medicine is not all that it is made up to be. How can this M.D. be fit to provide meaningful advice on how I should keep being healthy? Looked to me like I should be advising this M.D. and not the other way around.

As I continued along my path of medical science starting with medical laboratory technology, and as I began reading the medical literature alot of things just didn’t make sense. As I result of this, I secretly started championing medical science truths.

For sure the use of chemotherapy and radiation therapy (which cause cancer!) could only be considered barbaric (the hair falls out and both destroy the immune system the only thing protecting against the cancer). We have known at least since 1994 in my unified theory of cancer published in Molecular Carcinogenesis that the malignant nature of tumors was not genetically determined. This work meant pharmacological interventions could cure cancer (if only they targeted the right thing such as alpha-fetoprotein (AFP)). We now know today that potent AFP antagonists when used in combination can cure cancer like ivermectin and the benzimidazoles.

Then came the notion that mammograms which uses cancer-causing ionizing radiation and squeezes the breasts into unimaginable planes, would reduce breast cancer morbidity and mortality. I never understood the rationale behind inducing breast cancer so you can tell the person you could detect it (although usually between mammograms… most of the time). For sure within a few years the widespread use of mammograms was associated with a 30% increase in breast cancers. They said it was better detection just like the increases in autism. Allopathic medicine uses the same playbook over and over again.

Then came the statins. It is the immunosenescence of macrophages (ISM) that causes chronic diseases including cardiovascular diseases. People die from infections and tumors when their macrophages are not working. Guess what statins do… yup they block the activation of macrophages and the generation of trained immunity which over time erodes your health. The high number of people on statins likely triggered a lot of the hospitalizations due to COVID-19 in 2020.

The allopathic playbook was to say high cholesterol causes diseases when in fact the older you are, the longer you live if your cholesterol is elevated. High cholesterol generally occurs in response to stress. It is the stress that causes ISM (coupled with aging) not the cholesterol. In fact you need the cholesterol to produce trained immunity to rid yourself of chronic disease! You need cholesterol to produce DHEA the youth hormone that is anti-stress!!!

Then it was plaster yourself with sunscreen on the faulty premise of avoiding skin cancer. The vitamin D3 produced by sunshine is needed to prevent serious disease and its consequences of death from happening. In addition, being outside even in the shade provides relief from oxidative stress due to near infrared generating melatonin in the mitochondria. This also is anti-aging.

Then came the pandemic. This was a major turning point for many in the medical field. We witnessed first hand how the adaptive immunity COVID-19 vaccines failed to prevent infections and remarkably made us more susceptible to infection (remember the Cleveland Clinic data on hospital staff that showed increased risk of infection with each dose received!).

It wasn’t the unvaccinated that were putting the population at risk, it was the vaccinated especially the ones vaccinated with the spike mRNA “clot shots”. Indeed, the vast majority of deaths (at least 65% Image 1) reported to the CDC’s Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) by the end of 2025 appear to have been due to the spike mRNA shots creating bioweapons that kill via microclotting/vasculitis as a result of the dangerous production of spike IgG1 and IgG3 antibodies in the upper respiratory tract (URT). These complement binding antibody isotypes are believed to be transmitted with spike protein on the SARS-CoV-2 virions or on the spike mRNA LNP contaminated HERV-K102 particles (heavily loaded with mRNA generated spike protein) the latter which really can deliver a jolt to whoever comes within a few feet.

And so the final medical science truth telling of my career has been the notion that adaptive immunity vaccines should never have been used during the pandemic. This is something my book chapter of 2024 focussed on.

Laderoute MP. Chapter 17. Controversies Concerning the Immunology of the COVID-19 Adaptive Immunity Vaccines. In: Controversies in the Pandemic. Ed(s); J Varon, PE Marik, M Rendell, J Iglesias, C de Souza, P Prabhudesai. Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers Ltd, New Delhi, India, 2024, pp 760. ISBN: 978-93-5696-730-4.

Indeed, I think we have to step back and realize that adaptive immunity vaccination against viruses has a faulty foundation generally speaking and as recently voiced by Dr. Peter McCullough on Friday June 26 2026.

Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH®@P_McCulloughMD

The Herd Immunity Myth Behind Childhood Vaccine Mandates Vaccinology doctrine assumed sterilizing, lifelong protection. Most routine vaccines offer neither. Continuing to mandate based on that fiction is a policy catastrophe with profound consequences. @johnsearsleake

10:16 AM · Jun 26, 2026 · 22.7K Views

9 Replies · 58 Reposts · 140 Likes

The fault in the logic of all vaccines on the market and adaptive ones in development had not been revealed previously as proper saline controls in the randomized clinical trials were never used, and frequently (and mistakenly) the generation of IgG antibodies and neutralizing antibodies to viral antigens were used as surrogates for protection by the regulatory authorities. It is now very clear it is precisely these antibodies that increase the morbidity and mortality risks of subsequent encounters with viruses. Remarkably, the spike mRNA vaccines were especially dangerous as they actually generated spike IgG1 and IgG3 (complement binding antibodies) in the upper respiratory tract (extremely dangerous for Homo sapiens' survival) that turned the SARS-CoV-2 virion into a bioweapon, that injured and/or killed upon transmission to the new host without regard to health OR immunization status as described by Bowe B et al., Nature Medicine 2022.

If you would like to know more about Pfizer LNPs shedding (bioweaponized HERV-K102) or both Pfizer and Moderna’s creation of bioweaponized SARS-CoV-2 (see data by Bowe B et al., Nature Medicine 2022 above), have a look at my expert testimony here:

Laderoute MP. Shedding of Spike mRNA “Gene Therapy Products”: Potential Mechanisms and Mortality Outcomes. Sworn Expert Testimony to the National Citizens Inquiry, June 1, 2024.

https://rumble.com/v51idm2-dr.-marian-laderoute-jun-01-2024-regina-saskatchewan.html

and

Laderoute MP. The Catastrophic HARM of Spike Specific IgG1/3 Antibodies in the Upper Respiratory Tract (URT) by the COVID-19 Spike mRNA GENE THERAPY Products (and how this led to widespread injuries and deaths in CHILDREN AND HEALTHY ADULTS). Sworn Testimony to the National Citizens Inquiry; November 7, 2025, Brandon Manitoba. https://rumble.com/v72xyrm-dr.-marian-laderoute-november-07-2025-brandon-manitoba.html#comment-600000896.

Then with the publication of this paper:

Marian P. Laderoute. Trained immunity of M1-like foamy macrophages: A key role of human endogenous retrovirus K102 particles. Global Translational Medicine 025370071. https://doi.org/10.36922/GTM025370071.

I explained how only trained immunity can generate sterilizing and herd immunity and document how the spike mRNA gene therapy products wiped out sterilizing and herd immunity turning protective HERV-K102 particles into lethal weapons!

“Marian P. Laderoute. Trained immunity of M1-like foamy macrophages: A key role of human endogenous retrovirus K102 particles. Global Translational Medicine 025370071.

https://doi.org/10.36922/GTM025370071

”. Published June 26, 2026.

What Is This Paper About? (Lay summary)

Image 2. Foamy Macrophages Developing in Vitro in IMDM media.

This review article tries to answer a big question that scientists have struggled with, namely “How does ‘trained immunity’ that occurs in M1-like macrophages actually save lives and preserve the species? ”

More paradoxically, when trained immunity is launched from M1-like foamy macrophages, the foamy macrophages die by lysis (programmed cell death). How then does a dead cell not only protect against chronic diseases like cancer and infections, but how does this generate sterilizing and herd immunity? In other words, what exactly is launched from the foamy macrophages upon lysis?

We know that the trained immunity from activated macrophages spreads the interferon response to all cells in the body early during SARS-CoV-2 infection that is needed to protect the host from more serious disease. This was elegantly shown in a humanized mouse model by Kenney DJ et al., [Cell Reports 2022] but how macrophages even accomplish this simple feat remained unknown.

Trained immunity refers to a phenomenon where your innate immune system (your body’s first-response defenders) gets “better trained” after an infection or vaccination, so it reacts faster and stronger next time. We’ve known that it happens—but not exactly how.

Dr. Laderoute proposes a bold new answer: a built-in ancient virus [1] in our own DNA—called human endogenous retrovirus K102 (abbreviated as HERV-K102)—as the key driver and executer of trained immunity. Curiously it lies on the largest inherited fragment of the human genome that determines the human species; chromosome 1, at 1 q 22. All species have protector foamy retroviruses that fights disease and the one for humans was not known until Dr. Laderoute’s research team discovered HERV-K102 was replication competent in the test tube and in the body where it replicates in foamy macrophages (Image 2).

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[1] Perhaps only 800,000 years ago that the precursor to humans (common hominin ancestor) acquired in Africa just before they migrated into Europe and Asia from the Middle East.

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The Core Idea, Step by Step

1. Your macrophages turn “foamy” when they get activated.

Macrophages are white blood cells that eat invaders. When they activate during an infection, they start producing massive amounts of HERV-K102 particles (these are viral particles made from your own DNA ). These particles pile up inside the cell like bubbles, giving it a foamy appearance—which is why researchers call them “foamy macrophages”.

2. There are usually small lytic releases during the first few days. After about 6–7 days, there is a large lysis of about 30% of the macrophages when these very full cells burst open. [2]

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[2] While human monocytes and macrophages do not proliferate, one has to ask the question where do all the macrophages in the above Image come from? The answer must be that there are macrophage specific hematopoietic stem cells (HSC-MO) that circulate in blood that upon stimulation reproduce high numbers of macrophages explaining the 6-7 day delay in the major lysis event (these foamy macrophages developed whether from cord blood or from adult PBMCs (see validation by Peyron P et al, PLOS One, 2008, Image 3).

Image 3.

Most likely the higher integration of HERV-K102 occurs in these circulating cells helping to explain how trained immunity affects the central hematopoietic stem cell compartment as discussed by Professor MG Netea. (Prof. Netea discovered trained immunity in 2011.)

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The accumulated HERV-K102 particles are suddenly released throughout the body. This release triggers a powerful chain reaction upon entry of the HERV-K102 particles into each cell in the body:

A: Interferon response: Your body’s early-warning alarm system goes off, helping fight off viruses. (There are enough particles made to cover the total number of cells in the body.)

B: INNATE T-cell and B-cell activation: Your innate immune system (various types of T cells including the more ancient gamma delta T cells, and innate B cells) wakes up and learns to recognize HERV-K102 envelope proteins (Env) expressed on tumor or virus transformed cells. Serendipitously, for viruses that bud from the cell surface like SARS-CoV-2 and HIV-1 pandemic viruses, Env is inserted onto the emerging virions. Now the innate immune system can neutralize, destroy and clear these pandemic viruses as well as kill the cells producing virus through recognition of Env.

C: Amplification through genomic integration: HERV-K102 which is a non-pathogenic (ie., does not cause disease) foamy ‘retrovirus’ inserts extra copies of itself into your cells’ genome into open chromatin —essentially amplifying your ability to respond faster and much stronger on the next encounter with an infectious agent (where it doesn’t even have to be the same type of infectious agent or same strain). Upon recounter, the host does not waste time trying to open the DNA for the early and fast expression of HERV-K102 proviral RNA needed to reproduce the protector virus.

3. This amplification process in the putative circulating HSC-MO lasts generally anywhere from 6 to 12 months.

The paper argues that the integration of HERV-K102 particles is what gives trained immunity its STRONG “memory.” It’s not just epigenetic changes to the DNA (opening of the accessibility to DNA) at genes involved in innate immunity such as cytokines or chemokines—it involves actual viral integration that primes your immune system for future threats over the next 6 to 12 months.

Why Does This Reduce Death From All Causes?

Here’s where it gets clinically interesting. Dr. Laderoute ties this mechanism to several real-world observations:

When foamy macrophages FAIL to release their HERV-K102 particles, it signals a dysfunctional state she calls “immunosenescence of macrophages” (ISM) which she wrote about in 2015.

Laderoute MP. A new paradigm about HERV-K102 particle production and blocked release to explain cortisol mediated immunosenescence and age-associated risk of chronic disease. Discov Med. 2015;20(112):379-391.

It is the loss of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA, the youth hormone that counteracts stress but which also binds and inactivates alpha-fetoprotein (AFP)) that allows more AFP to be active and thus causes these critical immune cells to lose their effectiveness. ISM is linked to immunosuppression and paradoxically concomitant chronic inflammation, atherosclerosis, and other age-related signs and symptoms.

The cause of ISM and thus chronic disease is too much active alpha-fetoprotein (AFP). So to prevent and treat chronic diseases all you need to do is use AFP antagonists (detailed in the paper).

Dr. Laderoute discovered and characterized the 67 kD alpha-fetoprotein receptor (AFPr) on macrophages and which was also overexpressed on the common cancers the adenocarcinomas for her Ph.D. thesis. With two monoclonal antibodies to the active AFP binding site on the 67 AFPr, she confirmed that AFP binding to the 67 kD AFPr on macrophages generated not only an immunosuppressive signal, but also a net negative signal that blocked any incoming signalling, whether the signals were for programmed cell death, proliferation, differentiation, adherence etc. Moreover, she showed that dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA, the youth hormone that is also anti-stress) bound and inactivated AFP meaning ISM would be more common with aging and/or stress.

In her “unified theory of cancer” published in 1994 in Molecular Carcinogenesis, Dr. Laderoute argued that the malignant potential of tumors could be tied to immunosuppression of host macrophages through the tumor release of AFP which would remain active in an aged or stressed host. Effectively, Dr. Laderoute was one of the first to propose in 1994 that malignant potential was NOT genetically determined but could be pharmacologically reversed by AFP antagonists like ivermectin (putatively direct) and the benzimidazoles (indirect by acting on the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathways). Accumulating evidence suggests these two agents especially in combination can cure the majority of cancers including those found in the central nervous system.

4. Successful particle release reverses ISM. By restoring the normal function of foamy macrophages, the body regains its ability to mount strong innate defenses, which translates into lower mortality from infections, chronic diseases, and even cardiovascular events. Also Dr. Laderoute explains that adequate vitamin D3 levels in the blood, blocks the ability of various pathogens to induce ISM which in reality involves the conversion of the protective M1-foamy macrophages into the M2 foamy macrophages. This dichotomy of M1 versus M2 promoting recovery (M1) or tumor progression (M2) has been well studied in the cancer field since about the late 1990s, but no one could adequately explain what is going on here and how do the M1 foamy macrophages protect. Ng KW et al, [Nature 2023] elaborate and confirm that it has to do with the HERV-K102 protector system.

And so, the mystery of how trained immunity reduces all-cause mortality is no mystery at all.

In terms of sterilizing and herd immunity:

When an enveloped RNA virus with pandemic potential like HIV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 buds from an infected cell, it carries the HERV-K102 Env protein on the resulting virions. Now antibody to HERV-K102 Env can bind and clear/destroy the virions preventing systemic infection. This is called sterilizing immunity. As proof of this concept, the commercial sex trade workers from Kenya as described by the late Dr. Francis Plummer who were resistant to HIV-1 infection had on average a 5-fold increased HERV-K102 copy number on DNA sloughed into plasma when compared with 30 validated healthy normals which was not detected in people who became systemically infected with HIV-1 [Laderoute MP et al., 2015].

For herd immunity as demonstrated in this new paper, Laderoute was able to show that following the first dose of the Pfizer spike mRNA vaccine in about 50% of the 65 to 75 age group that both the COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 death rates went down in the unvaccinated in England. Using the non-COVID-19 death rates (because the circulation of SARS-CoV-2 varied over time, it could NOT be used to gauge protection over time), it was determined that the level of protection against non-COVID-19 deaths in the unvaccinated was further compromised with each dose of Pfizer spike mRNA administered to the population. For example here is the progression of loss of protection against non-COVID-19 deaths associated with the sequential doses in the unvaccinated (see Table 1 page 13 in the paper that is free to download and see Image 4 below). 1st dose: negative 21 % (fewer non-vaccinated died from non-COVID-19 causes); 2nd dose: negative 9 % (fewer non-vaccinated died from non-COVID-19 causes but the proportion saved dropped by about 57 % when compared to the first dose); 3rd dose: negative 1 % (fewer non-vaccinated died from non-COVID-19 causes but the proportion saved dropped by about 95% when compared to the first dose); 4th dose: positive 29 % (there was a net killing of the unvaccinated related to the 4th Pfizer spike mRNA dose consistent with the notion that protector HERV-K102 particles were being converted to bioweaponized HERV-K102 that upon transmission from the upper respiratory tract killed by microclotting/vasculitis. The positive control, the response to Omicron from January to February 2022, which infected the vaccinated and unvaccinated showed a net reduction in deaths in the vaccinated and unvaccinated for both COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 deaths. This validated the methodology used here to examine how the Pfizer spike mRNA vaccine led to not only dysfunctional HERV-K102 particle release from the upper respiratory tract but how it was putatively turned into a killing machine.

Image 4. Evidence that the Pfizer mRNA shot in England reduced herd immunity as revealed by examining changes to % deaths for the non-COVID-19 deaths in the unvaccinated. (-21%, -9 %, -1 %, and 29% for dose 1, 2, 3, and 4).