PozNews - HIV News - STD News: The Molecular Anatomy of Human Hsp60 and its Similarity with that of Bacterial Orthologs and Acetylcholine Receptor Reveal a Potential Pathogenetic Role of Anti-Chaperonin Immunity in Myasthenia Gravis.

The Molecular Anatomy of Human Hsp60 and its Similarity with that of Bacterial
Orthologs and Acetylcholine Receptor Reveal a Potential Pathogenetic Role of
Anti-Chaperonin Immunity in Myasthenia Gravis.
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MedWorm on 18 January, 2012 07:00:00
 
In this study, we demonstrate that Hsp60 proteins from humans and two common
pathogens, Chlamydia trachomatis and Chlamydia pneumoniae, share various
sequence segments of potentially highly immunogenic epitopes with acetylcholine
receptor α1 subunit (AChRα1). The structural data indicate that AChRα1
antibodies, implicated in the pathogenesis of myasthenia gravis, could very well
be elicited and/or maintained by self- and/or bacterial Hsp60.     PMID:
22258649 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher] (Source: Cellular and Molecular
Neurobiology)