Detection of Antibodies Against Synthetic Peptides Mimicking Ureases Fragments in Sera of Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients

Title:Detection of Antibodies Against Synthetic Peptides Mimicking Ureases Fragments in Sera of Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients

Volume: 19 Issue: 11

Author(s): Iwona Konieczna, Marek Kwinkowski, Beata Kolesinska, Zbigniew Kaminski, Paulina Zarnowiec and Wieslaw Kaca

Affiliation:

Keywords: Bacterial urease, molecular mimicry, rheumatoid arthritis

Abstract: 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.

Cite this article as:

Konieczna Iwona, Kwinkowski Marek, Kolesinska Beata, Kaminski Zbigniew, Zarnowiec Paulina and Kaca Wieslaw, Detection of Antibodies Against Synthetic Peptides Mimicking Ureases Fragments in Sera of Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients, Protein & Peptide Letters 2012; 19 (11) . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/092986612803217123