4 ms·
the article explains this.
by gameswithgo 5y ago
the article explains this.
- shawnz 5y agoWhere?
- SamBam 5y agoI don't believe it does, at least not clearly. The question is why we develop an allergic reaction to the alpha-gal sugar injected by the tick bite, and not to alpha gal simply by eating red meat. I believe the usual hypothesis for reactions like this is that the body treats the tick bite as an injury, and a possible source of infection. It will probably initiate the primary (innate) immune system, which inflames the site and recruits immune cells. These cells then find the slightly-unusual alpha gal molecule, and incorrectly treat it as an antigen, leading to an adaptive immune response to alpha gal from then on. My understanding is that vaccines delivered by injection actually benefit from this system as well, as the body rapidly initiates the innate immune system in response to the puncture wound caused by the needle.