In article <38oq38INNq39 at early-bird.think.com>,
york at mbcrr.dfci.harvard.edu (Ian A. York) wrote:
> Another case in point is hepatitis B. Here the vast number of
> non-infectious particles are probably chaff for the immune system, but
> importantly these do not contain genomes; the investment in these
> particles is relatively low. So the non-infectious diversion doesn't
> really apply here.
Hmmm...considering that during acute infection there are 10^9 DNA
containing particles per ml and 2-3 logs *higher* levels of surface
antigen particles (22 nm and filaments) I think that the investment (as
you call it) in the later is really quite high. In moving from an acute
infection to a chronic form, the non-infectious diversion really *does*
apply; circulating sAg can overwhelm a fledgling humoral response and
drive tolerance/anergy in the CMI response both having a role in
chronicity.
My 2¢ worth.
Cheers
Karl
--
Karl Fischer
kfischer at gpu.srv.ualberta.catyr-2 at bones.biochem.ualberta.ca
