In article <31bhe8$3f1 at agate.berkeley.edu>, frauwirt at mendel.Berkeley.EDU (Ken
Frauwirth (BioKen)) says:
>How could a cell recognize a "non-self" antigen (e.g. viral protein) that
>was synthesized by its own ribosomes?
It is proposed that over evolutionary time cells have fine-tuned self
protein concentrations to the concentrations of the other self proteins with
which they are moving through time. The cytosol is so crowded that each
protein species is very near tripping over the concentration theshold above
which aggregation occurs. Aggregates trip (?) proteosome complexes into
degrading the aggregates into peptides. Viral proteins more readily exceed the
concentration threshold than self-proteins and thus preferentially trigger
the degradation process for MHC presentation. This hypothesis derives from
the classic studies of M. A. Lauffer (Entropy-Driven Processes in Biology.
Springer-Verlag. 1975; Motion in Biological Systems. A.Liss. 1989).
For further information see J. Theoretical Biology 167:7-12 (1994) and
J. Biol.Systems (in press).
Sincerely, Don Forsdyke
Discussion Leader. Bionet.immunology
