IT COULD soon be possible to temporarily boost people’s immune systems to
fight off all sorts of diseases, including anthrax. This could help protect
travellers and people undergoing surgery as well as workers or soldiers at risk
from bioweapons.
The method is based on a key difference between human and bacterial DNA. In
people, when the bases cytosine and guanine occur together, the cytosine usually
carries a methyl group. In bacteria, it doesn’t. So when the vertebrate immune
system encounters a “CpG” sequence containing unmethylated cytosine and guanine,
it immediately mounts a generalised immune response that protects against
bacteria and…
