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University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Acanthamoeba castellanii

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Full-Text Articles in Medicine and Health Sciences

Gender Differences In Cns Autoimmunity Induced By Mimicry Epitope For Plp 139–151 In Sjl Mice, Chandirasegara Massilamany, Sivasubramani Thulasingam, David Steffen, Jay Reddy Jan 2011

Gender Differences In Cns Autoimmunity Induced By Mimicry Epitope For Plp 139–151 In Sjl Mice, Chandirasegara Massilamany, Sivasubramani Thulasingam, David Steffen, Jay Reddy

Jay Reddy Publications

Development of multiple sclerosis (MS) is more prevalent in females than in males, but the underlying mechanisms are not clear. Microbial infections have been suspected as triggers of MS and it is not known whether gender differences in reactivity to environmental antigens contribute to the disease pathogenesis. We demonstrated that ACA 83–95, a mimicry epitope from Acanthamoeba castellanii for proteolipid protein (PLP) 139–151, induces clinical signs of encephalomyelitis in both male and female SJL mice. Conversely ACA 83–95-induced effector cells from males fail to induce disease in female mice. Although we found no gender differences in the frequencies of antigen-specific …


An Epitope From Acanthamoeba Castellanii That Cross-React With Proteolipid Protein 139-151-Reactive T Cells Induces Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis In Sjl Mice, Chandirasegaran Massilamany, David Steffan, Jay Reddy Jan 2010

An Epitope From Acanthamoeba Castellanii That Cross-React With Proteolipid Protein 139-151-Reactive T Cells Induces Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis In Sjl Mice, Chandirasegaran Massilamany, David Steffan, Jay Reddy

Jay Reddy Publications

We report here that an epitope (aa, 83-95) derived from Acanthamoeba castellanii (ACA) induces clinical signs of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) in SJL/J mice reminiscent of the disease induced with myelin proteolipid protein (PLP) 139-151. By using IAs/tetramers, we demonstrate that both ACA 83-95 and PLP 139-151 generate antigen-specific cross-reactive CD4 T cells and the T cells secrete identical patterns of cytokines and induce EAE with a similar severity. These results may provide insights into the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis and ACA-induced granulomatous encephalitis.