Human Diseases

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), atherosclerosis (AR) and urinary tract infection (UTI) are long-lasting human diseases. RA and AR are chronic diseases with strong autoimmunological background. There are hypothesis that bacterial infections may be connected with development of above mentioned diseases. Molecular mimicry between bacterial and human antigens may be one of possible mechanisms of RA and AR development. We postulated that the potential bacterial antigens involved in molecular mimicry are bacterial ureases, enzymes frequently present in pathogenic (H. pylori) and commensal bacteria (P. mirabilis). The aim of this study was to discover whether synthetic 18 and 8-mer peptides that mimicking bacterial ureases are recognized by RA, AR and UTI patients antibodies. To achieve a better presentation of the epitopes to antibodies, a new ocyanuric linker was designed and used to immobilize the peptides on a cellulose support. In RA as well as AR, patients sera the level of antibodies reacting with synthetic peptides were significantly higher in comparison to volunteer blood donor sera. The minimal binding epitope was determined to be an 8-mer peptide (H-SIKEDVQF-OH). Analysis of the peptide library with 19-mer peptides differing in location only of individual amino acids in the sequence showed that patients with RA react with synthetic antigens in a different way in comparison with control, blood donor serum. A high level of antibodies against bacterial ureases in RA, AR and UTI patients’ sera may indicate on connection between the bacteria presence and infection and development of selective long-lasting human diseases. Wieslaw Kaca, Bacterial ureases and its role in long-lasting human diseases

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Last date updated on April, 2024