... that the antibodies are often functionally promiscuous or multi-specific which can lead to their binding to more than one antigen. An important cause of antibody cross-reactivity is molecular mimicry. Molecular mimicry has been implicated in the generation of autoimmune response. When foreign antigen shares...

...Kathryn M. Armstrong; Kurt H. Piepenbrink; Brian M. Baker A necessary feature of the immune system, TCR (T-cell receptor) cross-reactivity has been implicated in numerous autoimmune pathologies and is an underlying cause of transplant rejection. Early studies of the interactions of αβ TCRs (T-cell...

...Regina WICHE; Michaela GUBESCH; Herbert KÖNIG; Kay FÖTISCH; Andreas HOFFMANN; Andrea WANGORSCH; Stephan SCHEURER; Stefan VIETHS Birch ( Betula verrucosa ) pollen-associated food allergy is a well-characterized syndrome, which is due to the cross-reactivity of IgE antibodies to homologous allergens...

... allergens. The tertiary structure of Pru av 1, the major cherry ( Prunus avium ) allergen, for example, is nearly identical with Bet v 1, the major birch ( Betula verrucosa ) pollen allergen. In order to define cross-reactive IgE epitopes, we generated and analysed mutants of Pru av 1 and Api g 1.0101...

...Reto CRAMERI This Commentary discusses the work of Neudecker et al. in this issue of the Biochemical Journal in which site-directed mutagenesis and NMR spectroscopy have been used to analyse in detail the IgE-binding capacity of two cross-reactive allergens: Apg1.0101 from celery ( Apium graveolens...

... 2003 allergy cross-reactivity recombinant periwinkle protein pathogenesis-related proteins Biochem. J. (2003) 373, 261 269 (Printed in Great Britain) 261 Molecular characterization of recombinant T1, a non-allergenic periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus) protein, with sequence similarity...