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- Title
Autoantigen cross-reactive environmental antigen can trigger multiple sclerosis-like disease.
- Authors
Reynolds, Catherine J; Sim, Malcolm J W; Quigley, Kathryn J; Altmann, Daniel M; Boyton, Rosemary J
- Abstract
<bold>Background: </bold>Multiple sclerosis is generally considered an autoimmune disease resulting from interaction between predisposing genes and environmental factors, together allowing immunological self-tolerance to be compromised. The precise nature of the environmental inputs has been elusive, infectious agents having received considerable attention. A recent study generated an algorithm predicting naturally occurring T cell receptor (TCR) ligands from the proteome database. Taking the example of a multiple sclerosis patient-derived anti-myelin TCR, the study identified a number of stimulatory, cross-reactive peptide sequences from environmental and human antigens. Having previously generated a spontaneous multiple sclerosis (MS) model through expression of this TCR, we asked whether any of these could indeed function in vivo to trigger CNS disease by cross-reactive activation.<bold>Findings: </bold>A number of myelin epitope cross-reactive epitopes could stimulate T cell immunity in this MS anti-myelin TCR transgenic model. Two of the most stimulatory of these 'environmental' epitopes, from Dictyostyelium slime mold and from Emiliania huxleyi, were tested for the ability to induce MS-like disease in the transgenics. We found that immunization with cross-reactive peptide from Dictyostyelium slime mold (but not from E. huxleyi) induces severe disease.<bold>Conclusions: </bold>These specific environmental epitopes are unlikely to be common triggers of MS, but this study suggests that our search for the cross-reactivity triggers of autoimmune activation leading to MS should encompass epitopes not just from the 'infectome' but also from the full environmental 'exposome.'
- Publication
Journal of Neuroinflammation, 2015, Vol 12, Issue 1, p91
- ISSN
1742-2094
- Publication type
journal article
- DOI
10.1186/s12974-015-0313-9