antibodies against human cytomegalovirus in the pathogenesis of systemic sclerosis a gene array approach人类巨细胞病毒抗体在系统性硬化症的发病基因阵列的方法.pdfVIP

PLoS MEDICINE Antibodies against Human Cytomegalovirus in the Pathogenesis of Systemic Sclerosis: A Gene Array Approach 1* 2 1 1 1 3 Claudio Lunardi , Marzia Dolcino , Dimitri Peterlana , Caterina Bason , Riccardo Navone , Nicola Tamassia , Ruggero Beri1 1 2,4 , Roberto Corrocher , Antonio Puccetti 1 Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Section of Internal Medicine, University of Verona, Verona, Italy, 2 Institute Giannina Gaslini, Genova, Italy, 3 Department of Pathology, Section of General Pathology, University of Verona, Verona, Italy, 4 Department of Experimental Medicine, Section of Histology, University of Genova, Genova, Italy Competing Interests: The authors A B S T R A C T have declared that no competing interests exist. Background Author Contributions: CL and AP conceived the idea and were the Systemic sclerosis is an autoimmune disease characterized by immunological abnormalities, principal investigators of the Genova vascular damage, and fibroblast proliferation. We have previously shown that a molecular and Verona teams, respectively. MD mimicry mechanism links antibodies against the human-cytomegalovirus-derived protein UL94 and DP performed the analysis of all the genes up- and downregulated. to the pathogenesis of systemic sclerosis. The UL94 epitope shows homology with NAG-2, a CB was responsible for cell cultures surface molecule highly expressed on endothelial cells. Anti-UL94 peptide antibodies purified and purification of the antibodies.