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Pastimes : SARS - what next? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RealMuLan who wrote (366)	5/2/2003 2:17:24 PM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1070

>>So far, looks like the people in the US, especially Anglo-Saxons (just the fact, no racial profiling), has some group immunity.<< I don't know jack about immunology, although I struggle mightily because I have rheumatoid arthritis, which is a nasty autoimmune disease which causes my macrophages to attack the synovial lining of my joints. As autoimmune diseases go, it's not the worst (that would probably be muscular dsytrophy or maybe multiple sclerosis or myasthenia gravis) nor the best (well, none of them are good but the one that causes dry eyes seems to be the least debilitating). There is definitely a genetic component to rheumatoid arthritis and pretty much every autoimmune disease, as far as I know. At any rate, whatever is killing SARS patients may well have an autoimmune component - the host turns on itself, thinking it is killing the disease. I can't help wondering whether tumor necrosis factor has a role in this -- if so, there are drugs which preferentially suppress tumor necrosis factor, including Remicade, Enbrel. , and Humira. Very expensive. I take methotrexate which suppresses purine synthesis, used to take Arava which suppresses pyrimadine synthesis. I have no idea how these work but I don't think that anybody really understands it yet. They inhibit protein synthesis which inhibits cell formation, so that slows down the growth of macrophages, but you need macrophages otherwise you die of infections. Oh, well, it works. Side effects - liver damage, lung damage. Steroids are even more scatter-shot than methotrexate - essentially they act as an anti-feedback mechanism on the immune system. Something more narrow is needed. What part of the immune system is over-reacting to SARS? I posted earlier a hypothesis that it's something to do with IgG2 and CD32 receptors -- and that Asians and Caucasians have different ratios of CD32 H131 vs. CD32 R131 -- only 10% of Asians are homozygous for the CD32 R131 phenotype >>H131 is the high-binding allele and R131 is low binding, while heterozygotes have intermediate function. Because IgG2 is a poor activator of the classical complement pathway, Fc RIIa-H131 [CobaltBlue - this is another way of expressing CD32a-H131] is essential for handling IgG2 immune complexes. The genotype distribution of FcRIIA in Caucasian and African American populations is 25% homozygous for H131, 50% heterozygous, and 25% homozygous for R131. Among Asians, the frequency of the R131 allele is much lower, and 10% of the population is homozygous for R131.<< Cached on google: 216.239.53.100

To: RealMuLan who wrote (366)	5/2/2003 5:56:02 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1070

<So far, looks like the people in the US, especially Anglo-Saxons (just the fact, no racial profiling), has some group immunity.> Yiwu, What's wrong with racial profiling? We are a function of our genes and we function differently in response to different environmental challenges according to those genes. The main thing wrong with racial profiling is that ignorant people draw stupid conclusions. If we have two children playing under our care, and one has skin full of melanin and the other is blue-eyed, pink skinned and fair-haired, I'd be fussing over the pink one to ensure minimal ultraviolet light exposure. If I'm looking for Islamic Jihad terrorists, I'll scrutinize Arab-looking guys in their late teens or twenties and ignore Japanese-looking old ladies with children. I will not care if the old lady has a big pair of scissors or even a carving knife. We need more discrimination, not less. The more discriminating we are, the more likely we are to succeed in what we do. Broad brush ideas such as searching everyone at an airport is a waste of time and the registered bad guys [not many ladies in Atta's attack] are more likely to achieve their aims. Pregnant women with children can generally be waved through everywhere. Being discriminating, we should keep an eye out for odd-ball things which would suggest it's Squeaky Fromm [a wacko murderous nutball]. Hooray for racial profiling and discrimination. But I am circumspect about visiting the USA these days because I assume that they do use racial/national and gender profiling and some idiotic authoritarian will give me the short straw and at best hassle me excessively and at worst turf me in Guantanamo Bay without habeas corpus, legal representation or and human rights [which the USA is usually so mouthy about - we don't hear much from them about universal human rights these days; it's either with them or against them]. The profiler needs to have an IQ. Authoritarians are required to check their brains at the door - it's almost a job requirement to not have too much of it. Mqurice