Hi Daniele,
I think a great reference is the www.uspto.gov. Look for patent number
6,468,534 by Hennen et al. (Issued October 22, 2002.) It discloses that...
- transfer factors are protein molecules that are about 44 amino acids long
- transfer factors have at several functional regions...
- a first region (8 to 12 amino acids) to bind to antigen
- a second region (about 10 amino acids) to bind to T-cell receptors
- an immune supressor fraction and inducer fraction
- other active regions being studied
- transfer factors elicit a secondary immune response
Are the transfer factors the immuno-stimulating cytokines that you speak of?
I found a web site that offers links to a ton of independent references on
transfer factors. (I haven't gone through the links just yet... so
overwhelming.)
http://www.supercolostrum.com/Colostrum/Research/index.htm
Now lets say 8 amino acids make the antigen-binding region. If there are 20
human amino acids (I know there are 80 of them in nature), then there can
only be 20^8 = 25,600,000,000 possible sequences. Then who knows how many
shapes a single sequence can have! I would think that would be enough for a
lot of antigens.
There is a downloadable movie briefly discusses TF, but the movie is really
an advertisement of a multi-level marketing plan so I have not disclosed the
link until I know more about TF. Email me if you'd like to see the
advertisement anyway.
In the mean time... Happy New Year!
Dan
