Departments of Microbiology and Internal Medicine, The Carver College of Medicine, The University of Iowa, Iowa City IA, USA.
Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2012 Mar 13;2:19. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2012.00019. eCollection 2012.
Nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi) is an exclusive human pathogen, which has evolved a number of unique mechanisms to survive within the human environment. An important part of this is the ability of the organism to take up and incorporate sialic acid into its surface structures. This protects the organism against host adaptive and innate immune factor as well as serving as a mechanism for sustaining itself within biofilms. Recent evidence suggests that this also may be the source of the evolution of human antibodies to non-human sialic acid structures, which can lead to inflammation in the host. In very rare instances, evolution of antibodies to sialylated lipooligosaccharide (LOS) mimics of human antigens can result in autoimmune disease.
无乳链球菌（NTHi）是一种专性人类病原体，它进化出了许多独特的机制来在人类环境中生存。其中一个重要的部分是该生物体摄取并将唾液酸纳入其表面结构的能力。这不仅可以保护生物体免受宿主适应性和先天免疫因素的影响，还可以作为在生物膜中维持自身的机制。最近的证据表明，这也可能是人类抗体对非人类唾液酸结构产生的原因，这可能导致宿主炎症。在极少数情况下，针对人类抗原唾液酸化脂寡糖（LOS）模拟物的抗体进化可能导致自身免疫性疾病。
