Both Batesian and Müllerian mimicries are considered classical evidence of natural selection where predation pressure has, at times, created a striking similarity between unrelated prey species. Batesian mimicry, in which palatable mimics resemble unpalatable aposematic species, is parasitic and only beneficial to the mimics. By contrast, in classical Müllerian mimicry the cost of predators' av...

Most experts believe that multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease in which T cells recognize and attack components of the axonal myelin sheath and other features of the central nervous system, destroying myelin and the underlying axon. Although self-reactive T cells are present in the immune system of people with multiple sclerosis, they are also found in a quiescent state in perfectly heal...

303 Rev Bras Reumatol 2012;52(3):303-306 Molecular mimicry has been proposed as a pathogenic mechanism for autoimmune disease. The hypothesis is based on the epidemiological, clinical, and experimental studies and in evidence fi nding an association between infectious agents and autoimmune disease, observing cross-reactivity of immune agents with host antigens and microbial determinants.1 Recen...

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) could be an autoimmune disease produced following exposure of cattle to feedstuffs containing bacteria showing molecular mimicry between bacterial components and bovine tissue. Analysis of molecular sequence databases (Genbank and SwissProt) shows that three bacteria (Acinetobacter calcoaceticus,Ruminococcus albus, and Agrobacter tumefaciens) share sequenc...

The origins of autoimmune disease are multifactorial. Environmental factors and a genetic predisposition result in tissue injury caused by autoreactive T cells or antibodies. Usually a single organ or individual cell type is aVected in the absence of gross abnormalities of the immune system. Autoimmune diseases tend to have long, asymptomatic prodromal periods and the initiating events leading ...

During embryogenesis, the primordial microcirculation is formed through a process known as vasculogenesis. The term "vasculogenic mimicry" has been used to describe the manner in which highly aggressive, but not poorly aggressive melanoma tumor cells express endothelial and epithelial markers and form vasculogenic-like networks similar to embryonic vasculogenesis. Vasculogenic mimicry is one ex...

Immune thrombocytopenia is a common complication of infection with the human immunodeficiency (HIV)1 and hepatitis C (HCV)2 viruses. In previous works, the authors showed that many patients with HIVassociated thrombocytopenia have autoantibodies that recognize a restricted peptide sequence (GPIIIa49-66) in platelet membrane glycoprotein IIIa (GPIIIa) and can be recovered from patient plasma in ...

T cells often alloreact with foreign human leukocyte antigens (HLA). Here we showed the LC13 T cell receptor (TCR), selected for recognition on self-HLA-B( *)0801 bound to a viral peptide, alloreacts with B44 allotypes (HLA-B( *)4402 and HLA-B( *)4405) bound to two different allopeptides. Despite extensive polymorphism between HLA-B( *)0801, HLA-B( *)4402, and HLA-B( *)4405 and the disparate se...