Konieczna Iwona, Kwinkowski Marek, Kolesińska Beata, Kamiński Zbigniew, Zarnowiec Paulina, Kaca Wiesław
Department of Microbiology, Institute of Biology, Jan Kochanowski University, Kielce, Poland.
Protein Pept Lett. 2012 Nov;19(11):1149-54. doi: 10.2174/092986612803217123.
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic disease with an autoimmunological background. RA is mostly characterized by systemic inflammation and injuries of synovial joints. There is a hypothesis that bacterial infections may be connected with development of the disease. It has been suggested that molecular mimicry between bacterial and human antigens may be one of possible mechanisms of RA development. One of potential antigens involved in this mechanism is urease - enzyme with high structural conservatism, occurring in pathogenic and commensal bacteria. We found that the level of antibodies against peptide mimicking urease "flap" region is significantly higher in sera from patients with rheumatoid arthritis in comparison with volunteer blood donor sera. We also observed that antibodies present in RA sera may bind not only specific peptide antigens but also peptides with a slightly different structure.
类风湿性关节炎（RA）是一种具有自身免疫背景的慢性疾病。RA的主要特征是全身炎症和滑膜关节损伤。有一种假说认为细菌感染可能与该疾病的发展有关。有人提出细菌抗原与人类抗原之间的分子模拟可能是RA发展的可能机制之一。参与这一机制的潜在抗原之一是脲酶——一种在致病细菌和共生细菌中都存在且结构高度保守的酶。我们发现，与志愿献血者血清相比，类风湿性关节炎患者血清中针对模拟脲酶“瓣”区的肽的抗体水平显著更高。我们还观察到，RA血清中存在的抗体不仅可以结合特定的肽抗原，还可以结合结构略有不同的肽。
