Re: [DIYbio] Re: Genetic engineering at home

Cathal you really summed up these issues nicely!  I few more points for people interested in this stuff:

• Some proteins are inherently more immunogenic than others.  Sometimes, they just don't have good epitopes for antibodies to target, and/or fragments from them don't fit well into MCHII molecules for presentation to T cells.  GFP however seems to be pretty immunogenic: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10455440
• "Immune Privilege" for the brain and eye is the result of active immune suppression plus physical barriers to immune cell entry (lack of lymphatics, blood-brain barrier).  However, this privilege can and does fail...see multiple sclerosis and symphathetic opthalmia, for example.
  
• I agree that engineering infrared vision is way beyond current capabilities :)
  

Mike (immunology grad student)

On Thursday, January 2, 2014 11:32:46 AM UTC-5, Cathal Garvey wrote:

Allergy wouldn't be the same reaction.

With GFP exposure outside cells, you'd expect no reaction at first, and
if an allergy results, then on later exposure you'd get swelling, etcetera.

With GFP *inside cells*, you'd expect immune to seek out any cell
bearing the GFP antigen, and trigger apotosis in those cells or
*degranulate on their asses*.

So, not just inflammation, but destruction of cells in the area by the
immune system. If enough cells are destroyed at once, you'll end up with
weakened or necrotic tissue and potentially a carbuncle or open sore.

If you're *really* unlucky, the anti-GFP reaction will cause an
autoimmune cross-reaction against a normal cell antigen, and you'll
develop something like Lupus. But I'll grant you that for GFP, that's
pretty unlikely! I doubt anti-GFP antibodies/TCAs resemble
anti-anything-else-in-the-human-body.

On 01/01/14 21:26, Nathan McCorkle wrote:
> Realistically though, would the immune reaction be more than something
> like a bee-sting causes? GFP isn't an enzyme like bee-toxin is, just a
> non-self protein. Maybe a more similar allergenic situation would be a
> skin-allergen prick test.
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin_allergy_test
>

> On Wed, Jan 1, 2014 at 12:38 PM, Pieter <pieterva...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> I was shown the same picture, and share your skepticism. It seems pretty
>> unlikely, and not documented elsewhere...
>>
>>
>> On Tuesday, 31 December 2013 20:00:38 UTC+1, Cathal Garvey (Phone) wrote:
>>>
>>> Also, I have seen a phonecam shot of an alleged GFP "tattoo" where someone
>>> jabbed themselves with an Adenoviral gfp vector. I say "Alleged" because I
>>> can't imagine that working for more than an hour or so before going necrotic
>>> from immune rejection.
>>>
>>> Nathan McCorkle <nmz...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Dec 30, 2013 10:10 PM, "Patrik D&apos;haeseleer" <pat...@gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>> I bet it's only a matter of time before someone tries to give themselves
>>>>> a GFP tattoo with a gene gun though...
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> That's already started happening, at least academically:
>>>> http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2855251/
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.
>>
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