scrooch OP t1_irnjcwq wrote on October 9, 2022 at 4:52 PM

Reply to comment by dan_dares in Could CRISPR transform a mouse stem cell to a human stem cell? by scrooch

Ah okay, proteins are the thing I was missing. If you forgive the analogy, it's like taking a running computer and switching out the code that is running, the information in RAM (the proteins) used to communicate with the other devices (organelles) will not match.

It's this difference in the protein protocol between the nucleus and the organelles that probably causes viruses to work in some species and not others? Thus there's probably evolutionary pressure to diversify that protocol.

Taking another wild leap, humans could potentially modify that protocol in such a way that humans look exactly the same but would be resistant to cross species viruses.

dan_dares t1_irnl5b7 wrote on October 9, 2022 at 5:04 PM

Yes, the computer analogy is pretty good, but the proteins can be for signaling, enzymes, or other purposes..

Can the old co-exist with the new? Thats a question i have no idea about (I will be honest)

There are a few reasons why viruses from other species can't infect human cells (or well) generally it's a matter of the virus gaining entry to the cell to hijack cellular machinery (i will admit, it's been a few years since my virology courses) so physically differences at this stage generally prevents entry.

Interestingly there is a line of thought that some poorly adapted viruses can be oncogenic (causing cancers)

To everyone with more knowledge on this, please correct and accept my apologies if I butchered anything!

dan_dares t1_irnlkj2 wrote on October 9, 2022 at 5:07 PM

To use your computer analogy, modifying a protein would be like modifying a program class, without fully understanding the full program, might work, might cause huge issues 😂