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hirenj | 1 year ago

Fun fact: The AAVR (AAV receptor) is itself a glycoprotein (carrying the precise type of glycosylation they are trying to repair with the “gene therapy”). Haven’t read up what replacement gene dose ended up being, but entirely within realms of possibility that this could influence which cells get corrected.

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card_zero|1 year ago

So that's, what, a protein on the outside of the cell that lets the virus in, like its own particular catflap? And you're saying this portal is made of mucus, and mucus is what they want to repair, and therefore ... nope, can't piece the conclusion together, sorry. "Could infuence", as in?

hirenj|1 year ago

Catflap is a surprisingly apt analogy. In this case it is an endocytosis receptor, that selects cargo for uptake. Differs from virus to virus of course, but I could see changes in the sugars on these proteins altering behaviour. Mucus/mucins are basically proteins very heavily modified with sugars, so you have this common system that is adapted to do different things.