Bioinformatic and immunological analysis reveals lack of support for measles virus related mimicry in Crohn's disease.

ABSTRACT:

Background

A link between measles virus and Crohn's disease (CD) has been postulated. We assessed through bioinformatic and immunological approaches whether measles is implicated in CD induction, through molecular mimicry.

Methods

The BLAST2p program was used to identify amino acid sequence similarities between five measles virus and 56 intestinal proteins. Antibody responses to measles/human mimics were tested by an in-house ELISA using serum samples from 50 patients with CD, 50 with ulcerative colitis (UC), and 38 matched healthy controls (HCs).

Results

We identified 15 sets of significant (>70%) local amino acid homologies from two measles antigens, hemagglutinin-neuraminidase and fusion-glycoprotein, and ten human intestinal proteins. Reactivity to at least one me

SUBMITTER: Polymeros D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4171545 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature