Kahn S, Kahn M, Eisen H
Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington, School of Medicine, Seattle 98195.
Eur J Immunol. 1992 Dec;22(12):3051-6. doi: 10.1002/eji.1830221204.
During the course of many human autoimmune diseases, antibodies which recognize negatively charged epitopes on self antigens are detected. Trypanosoma cruzi, an intracellular protozoan parasite capable of infecting a wide variety of vertebrates, is the cause of Chagas disease in humans. Infection with the parasite frequently results in autoimmune and inflammatory pathology. We report here on an affinity-purified population of antibodies that bind to a broad class of antigens that contain runs of acidic amino acids, including tubulin. Although these antibodies can be isolated from both uninfected and T. cruzi chronically infected C3H/He mice, the antibodies from the normal mice (the natural autoantibodies) bind to tubulin poorly at physiological pH, whereas the antibodies isolated from the infected animals bind well at physiological pH. We propose that similar processes may occur in humans following other infections accounting for the detection of antibodies to negatively charged epitopes in a variety of autoimmune diseases.
在许多人类自身免疫性疾病的病程中，可检测到识别自身抗原上带负电荷表位的抗体。克氏锥虫是一种能够感染多种脊椎动物的细胞内原生动物寄生虫，是人类恰加斯病的病原体。感染该寄生虫常常导致自身免疫和炎症性病理变化。我们在此报告了一类亲和纯化的抗体群体，它们能结合一大类含有酸性氨基酸序列的抗原，包括微管蛋白。虽然这些抗体可从未感染和克氏锥虫慢性感染的C3H/He小鼠中分离得到，但正常小鼠的抗体（天然自身抗体）在生理pH值下与微管蛋白的结合能力较差，而从感染动物中分离得到的抗体在生理pH值下结合良好。我们提出，在人类感染其他病原体后可能会发生类似过程，这可以解释在多种自身免疫性疾病中检测到针对带负电荷表位的抗体的现象。
