Among the many strategies employed by parasites for immune evasion and host manipulation, one of the most fascinating is molecular mimicry. With genome sequences available for host and parasite, mimicry of linear amino acid epitopes can be investigated by comparative genomics. Here we developed an in silico pipeline for genome-wide identification of molecular mimicry candidate proteins or epito...

Despite many scientific advances, human exposure to, and intoxication by, toxic metal species continues to occur. Surprisingly, little is understood about the mechanisms by which certain metals and metal-containing species gain entry into target cells. Since there do not appear to be transporters designed specifically for the entry of most toxic metal species into mammalian cells, it has been p...

Molecular mimicry is considered as a mechanism by which infectious pathogens may break immunological tolerance and cause autoimmune disease. It implicates that peptides shared between pathogen and host may induce cross-reactive immune reactions. According to this hypothesis, the resulting autoimmune response actually represents a secondary immune response. It is mediated by cross-reactive T cel...

The concept of molecular mimicry was established to explain commonalities of structure which developed in response to evolutionary pressures. Most examples of molecular mimicry in medicine have involved homologies of primary protein structure which cause disease. Molecular mimicry can be expanded beyond amino acid sequence to include microRNA and proteomic effects which are either pathogenic or...

Molecular basis of antigen mimicry by an antiidiotope. Title Molecular basis of antigen mimicry by an anti-idiotope. Publication Type Journal Article Year of Publication 1995 Authors Fields, BA, Goldbaum, FA, Ysern, X, Poljak, RJ, Mariuzza, RA Journal Nature Volume 374 Issue 6524 Pagination 739-42 Date Published 1995 Apr 20 ISSN 0028-0836

For more than three decades, molecular mimicry has been considered a contributing factor in viral pathogenesis. The phenomenon comes about when viral antigens share epitopes with host cell proteins. Because tolerance is thought never to be complete, the mimicking microbe can induce anti-self antibodies, a state of autoimmunity, with resulting immunopathogenesis. This mode of attack seems preemi...

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is the most common autoimmune disease of the central nervous system (CNS). The main cause of the MS is yet to be revealed, but the most probable theory is based on the molecular mimicry that concludes some infections in the activation of T cells against brain auto-antigens that initiate the disease cascade.Objectives: The Purpose of this research is the...

To investigate the possible role of molecular mimicry to bacterial components in multiple sclerosis (MS) pathogenesis we examined antibody responses to mimicry peptide sequences of Acinetobacter, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and myelin components. Antibodies to mimicry peptides from Acinetobacter (p<0.001), P. aeruginosa (p<0.001), myelin basic protein (MBP) (p<0.001) and myelin oligodendrocyte glyco...