Re-Engineering the Immune System 175
destinyland notes a microbiology professor describing "Immunity on Demand" (or "Immunity 2.0") and wonders whether we could genetically engineer all the antibodies we need. "...there's a good chance this system, or something like it, will actually be in place within decades. Caltech scientists have already engineered stem cells into B cells that produce HIV-fighting antibodies — and an NIH researcher engineered T cells that recognize tumors which has already had promising clinical trials again skin cancer. Our best hope may be to cut out the middleman. Rather than merely hoping that the vaccine will indirectly lead to the antibody an individual needs, imagine if we could genetically engineer these antibodies and make them available as needed?"
Dangers of the right thing (Score:4, Informative)
And then when a new disease cones along ... (Score:2, Informative)
And then when a new disease comes along, our immune system is not properly trained, and we'll die.
Remember that the native Americans dies from illnesses which were relatively harmless for the Europeans, because they just didn't have all those illnesses there.
Re:Dangers of the right thing (Score:5, Informative)
Actally having too strong an immune system IS bad; that's what arthritis is, your body's immune system attacking you. But having bioengineered antibodies would ge great.
Too bad it will be "a few decades", I'll be dead by then.
Re:And then when a new disease cones along ... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I was under the impression (Score:1, Informative)
Yeah, I suppose. But, I had nothing to add. I really wanted to mod the post Informative, and my mouse hand moved too much.
It would be nice is Slashdot had an "undo mod" option, so one could remod. Make it cost something, so people don't change their mods willy-nilly, like the mod point you set incorrectly in the first place.
Clutter? About as much as "MOD THIS UP!" I suppose, which isn't exactly worthless.
Re:I was under... (Score:5, Informative)
Engineering antibodies is a simple matter, it's the basis of immunization/vaccination. Traditionally, we give chopped up bacteria and virii to a patient and their immune system detects those and creates more antibodies to put into the blood stream to stave off future infection. With this approach, instead we feed immune cells in a Petri dish an antigen, and they produce antibodies specific to that antigen. We can separate out these antibodies and purify them because they have that constant tail region that we can detect. We can then inject these into a person and these antibodies will cling to whatever thing they've been engineered to detect and attract the native immune system to it.
We can also use genetic engineering tricks to produce en masse a single specific kind of antibody. The technology has been there for research labs for decades. Either method will work fairly similarly, but in my opinion the former seems "easier", because we let the cells sort out what specific antibody to make. If we genetically engineer immune cells, we have to know exactly what gene sequence will produce an antibody targetting exactly what we want targetted
Re:I was under the impression (Score:3, Informative)
Your impression was very, very wrong. Not only can we see most disease-causing agents with electron microscopes, we have X-ray and/or NMR crystal structures of a huge number of viruses - meaning we know, down to a "where each individual atom is" level of accuracy, what these things look like.
Re:Unintended Consequences? (Score:3, Informative)
Your real immune system is working all the time, fighting more simultaneous and endless wars than the United States. Leave a piece of meat on the table and take note how long it takes before all the bacteria, fungi and insects notice it's there. Now remember that you are made of meat.
You only notice your immune system when something manages to get a foothold, but that doesn't mean that it isn't working at the other times.
Re:I was under... (Score:3, Informative)
> I'm a Biologist
> virii
So it's the biologists who are screwing up this beautiful language! The enemy is within the gates!
Re:Boy, Howdy! (Score:4, Informative)
A pity about their children suffering from their parent's stupidity, but maybe they'll wise up once they grow up.
Alas, not just their own unfortunate kids. Ever read about Dana McCaffery? [danamccaffery.com] She was too young to be vaccinated, and she died of pertussis that the anti-vaxxers brought back. Then one of the local pro-disease dumbasses [discovermagazine.com] went and said that no one ever died of pertussis.
Herd immunity (Score:4, Informative)
To be fair, pertussis is an environmental bacterium and is pretty common in adults -- it doesn't need anti-vaxx (aka "pro-disease") loons to "bring [i] back."
Not so measles -- that's one we could actually send off to join smallpox in the annals of extinct pathogenic viruses. Or we could, if it weren't for people like Andrew Wakefield, who saw a chance to make some money by killing children in the UK. Thus we have babies too young to be vaccinated contracting measles in their paediatricians' waiting rooms because somebody took their unvaccinated darlings to Switzerland and when they came back the little darlings came down sick. http://www.jennymccarthybodycount.com/Jenny_McCarthy_Body_Count/Home.html [jennymccar...ycount.com]
Re:Unintended Consequences? (Score:2, Informative)
No. An agent of some entity is specifically one who is acting on their behalf. Having a government issued medical license does not make one an agent of the government, the clerk behind the counter at the licensing agency is the agent of government. Accepting payments from Medicare does not make one an agent of the government, the claim reviewer deciding if a claim is covered by Medicare and then if Medicare should pay out is the agent of government. Cooperation with the CDC does not make one an agent of the government. Allowing the government to dictate the advice one gives as a doctor does make one an agent of the government, as recently was reported in the UK. Doctors were mandated to give advice on lowering patients carbon footprint, such advice is not medical in nature and has no business coming from a doctor unsolicited. What do public schools have to do with a doctor being an agent of government?