4 ms·

couldn't a retrovirus accidentally copy it during replication?

• refurb 3y ago
  Retroviruses don't have cellular membranes. They could over-express PD-L1 in a cell it infects, but they don't need the cell to live, they want it to lyse and release more viruses (though I guess you could argue it wants it to survive immune attack long enough to do so). Bacteria could potentially do it, but also bacteria cell walls are very different than human. I'm not sure an expressed transmembrane protein could actually be embedded in a bacterial cell wall and still remain functional.