TRANSFER-FACTOR IN THE AGE OF MOLECULAR-BIOLOGY - A REVIEW

Current data suggests that the transferring of immunologically specifi c information by transfer factor molecules requires interaction with a cell that has been genetically programmed to be antigen reactive but at the time of interaction is unprimed. Contact with transfer factor m olecules would allow a naive recipient, on a first encounter with anti gen, to make a secondary rather than a primary immunological response. Transfer factor molecules for each and every antigenic determinant ar e thus necessary. Transfer factors made from animals or humans are cap able of transferring antigen specificity across a species barrier. Eve n primitive species have cells from which one can make transfer factor s. The molecules are, therefore, well conserved and it is reasonable t o suggest that they are important for normal immunological functioning . Proposed mechanisms of action must explain the fact that transfer fa ctors obtained from the cells of high responder animals are capable of transferring delayed hypersensitivity to low responder animals while the reverse is not true. Transfer factor molecules are likely to inter act with the variable regions of the alpha and/or beta chain of T cell receptors to change their avidity and affinity for antigen in a way t hat otherwise would only occur after an encounter with antigen.