Allergies can develop due to the introduction of fragments of a foreign genome into a person, says geneticist Konstantin Krutovsky, VINI Vavilov RAS, Professor of Genomics and Bioinformatics at the Siberian Federal University (SFU).
“It is believed that there is no specific allergic reaction to the RNA and DNA itself, but if foreign RNA and DNA change the properties of the cell or lead to the synthesis of some allergenic products, then theoretically this, of course, can cause allergic reactions. ,” Krutovsky explained.
Recently, scientific studies have been conducted on horizontal gene transfer, which is the process of transferring genetic information between non-descendant organisms. It turns out that short RNAs play a large role in interactions between species.
“Initially, scientists discovered that thanks to these short RNAs, bacteria protect themselves from viruses and plants from insects. Reports are beginning to emerge that such fragments can affect the regulation of activity, namely the expression of host genes, particularly in humans. And a lot of such work has already been done, ”Krutovsky explained.
According to the geneticist, short RNAs form vesicles that can penetrate the human cell membrane and interact there with the host’s messenger RNA, thereby influencing the activity of genes. And they, in turn, affect all kinds of physiological reactions, the phenotype. In particular, they can cause allergies.
Learn more about why the world needs a new theory of evolution and whether allergies are the result of introducing foreign genes in food into food. material “socialbites.ca”.