Mining the capacity of human-associated microorganisms to trigger rheumatoid arthritis-A systematic immunoinformatics analysis of T cell epitopes.

ABSTRACT: Autoimmune diseases, often triggered by infection, affect ~5% of the worldwide population. Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA)-a painful condition characterized by the chronic inflammation of joints-comprises up to 20% of known autoimmune pathologies, with the tendency of increasing prevalence. Molecular mimicry is recognized as the leading mechanism underlying infection-mediated autoimmunity, which assumes sequence similarity between microbial and self-peptides driving the activation of autoreactive lymphocytes. T lymphocytes are leading immune cells in the RA-development. Therefore, deeper understanding of the capacity of microorganisms (both pathogens and commensals) to trigger autoreactive T cells is needed, calling for more systematic approaches. In the present study, we address this problem th

SUBMITTER: Repac J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8241107 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature