Re: Interesting finding with broad implications for understanding Tcell responses

[Guest guest]

> First author Dzung Nguyen and colleagues found that inhibitory

signaling proteins called Siglecs, normally expressed on mammalian

immune cells, are either totally absent or very poorly expressed in

human T cells. Their data indicate that suppression of T cell Siglecs

evolved about 100,000 to 200,000 years ago, leading to much more active

T cell responses.

Thats a bit odd. Its the timing thats odd, not the fact that humans

have some unique immune traits. Because of epidemic diseases, you might

expect the human immune response to have become more robust around the

time when humans became far more social than the great apes, which form

our genetic background. I dont think we did that until a few thousand

years ago.

[Guest guest]

> Thats a bit odd. Its the timing thats odd, not the fact that humans

> have some unique immune traits. Because of epidemic diseases, you

> might

> expect the human immune response to have become more robust around the

> time when humans became far more social than the great apes, which

> form

> our genetic background. I dont think we did that until a few thousand

> years ago.

Gee, I would have thought we became more social more that a few

thousand years ago. Depends on what you mean by " a few " I guess.

- Kate

[Guest guest]

> Gee, I would have thought we became more social more that a few

> thousand years ago. Depends on what you mean by " a few " I guess.

>

> - Kate

I guess I mean the time when a big chunk of the human population

started regularly being within 2 or 3 degrees of contact with a really

big network of people (like over 100 or 200). I'm not versed on when

that was or how certain one can be about it. But Sumer is usually

cited as the first civilization, at ~4000 BC.