4 ms·

I imagine these people are desperate enough to find other means to acquire an antibody that blocks CD47. I wonder what quasi- or il- legal means are available t

by wwwtyro 14y ago

I imagine these people are desperate enough to find other means to acquire an antibody that blocks CD47. I wonder what quasi- or il- legal means are available to them? Care to speculate? Edit: perhaps a set of crowd-sourced, extremely explicit instructions about how to manufacture, purify, and test such antibodies would be a start. With such a set of instructions, they might be able to find experts to help them under the table.

maxharris 14y ago
Well, you could try ordering from Fischer or any of the usual research supply places out there, but they will not ship to a non-institutional address. Even theft isn't an option here, unless you're somehow certain that a particular lab has exactly the right antibody. (In my lab, we often have trouble keeping track of that for ourselves...) And don't forget that you need to be able to maintain sterile conditions, and have whatever other reagents you need to dilute things, etc.
- wwwtyro 14y ago
  Wait - are you saying people could (were it legal) simply order this stuff from a company? Can you give me some kind of reference for this? If so, I could see people reaching out and finding others capable of placing the order.
  - maxharris 14y ago
    Here's CD47, conjugated to a fluorophor (when you have a cell covered in a conjugated antibody, it fluoresces when exposed to laser light - this is done so that an instrument called a flow cytometer can identify cells). http://www.biolegend.com/percp-cy55-anti-human-cd47-4338.html http://www.biolegend.com/percp-cy55-anti-human-cd47-4338.htm... Of course, to get CD47 depletion, you'd probably want an antibody that isn't conjugated (functional grade): http://www.ebioscience.com/resources/in-vivo-use-of-antibodies.htm http://www.ebioscience.com/resources/in-vivo-use-of-antibodi... Also, some more help on the terminology: CD47 (and most, if not all molecules that fall under the Cluster of Differention [CD] nomenclature) vary on a per-species basis. So an antibody that targets CD47 in mice is not going to stick to human CD47. "Anti-" in this context means that the antibody in question will stick to specific molecule in the species that comes after the "anti-". Note what it says on the bottom of the page. That's there because of regulations.
    - wwwtyro 14y ago
      Perfect, thanks for all this.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
car 14y ago
Strong word of warning! These antibodies are not human, but most likely mouse. They will illicit a strong immune response, since they are foreign to the human immune system. Furthermore, antibodies can be directed against many different locations on their target molecule (epitopes), CD47 in this case, and therefore it is very unlikely that they will compete with the ligand they are trying to block. In brief: you will hurt people doing this and achieve nothing.
- wwwtyro 14y ago
  Thank you.

by wwwtyro 14y ago

maxharris 14y ago

Well, you could try ordering from Fischer or any of the usual research supply places out there, but they will not ship to a non-institutional address. Even theft isn't an option here, unless you're somehow certain that a particular lab has exactly the right antibody. (In my lab, we often have trouble keeping track of that for ourselves...) And don't forget that you need to be able to maintain sterile conditions, and have whatever other reagents you need to dilute things, etc.

wwwtyro 14y ago
Wait - are you saying people could (were it legal) simply order this stuff from a company? Can you give me some kind of reference for this? If so, I could see people reaching out and finding others capable of placing the order.
- maxharris 14y ago
  Here's CD47, conjugated to a fluorophor (when you have a cell covered in a conjugated antibody, it fluoresces when exposed to laser light - this is done so that an instrument called a flow cytometer can identify cells). http://www.biolegend.com/percp-cy55-anti-human-cd47-4338.html http://www.biolegend.com/percp-cy55-anti-human-cd47-4338.htm... Of course, to get CD47 depletion, you'd probably want an antibody that isn't conjugated (functional grade): http://www.ebioscience.com/resources/in-vivo-use-of-antibodies.htm http://www.ebioscience.com/resources/in-vivo-use-of-antibodi... Also, some more help on the terminology: CD47 (and most, if not all molecules that fall under the Cluster of Differention [CD] nomenclature) vary on a per-species basis. So an antibody that targets CD47 in mice is not going to stick to human CD47. "Anti-" in this context means that the antibody in question will stick to specific molecule in the species that comes after the "anti-". Note what it says on the bottom of the page. That's there because of regulations.
  - wwwtyro 14y ago
    Perfect, thanks for all this.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

car 14y ago

Strong word of warning! These antibodies are not human, but most likely mouse. They will illicit a strong immune response, since they are foreign to the human immune system. Furthermore, antibodies can be directed against many different locations on their target molecule (epitopes), CD47 in this case, and therefore it is very unlikely that they will compete with the ligand they are trying to block. In brief: you will hurt people doing this and achieve nothing.

wwwtyro 14y ago
Thank you.