Possible role of bacterial heat-shock proteins in autoimmune diseases

The immune system is continuously exposed to a variety of microbial antigens. It is unavoidable that such antigens may resemble autoantigens, being present in the host. It has appeared now that the immune system is accepting recognition of such "mimicry" antigens and even may have developed a tendency to focus its attention to such antigens. This paper discusses the findings of immune responses to heat-shock proteins, as a family of proteins exhibiting extraordinary sequence conservation, creating a high degree of similarity between bacterial antigens and host antigens. On the basis of existing evidence, it is argued that immune responses directed at hsps are part of regulatory mechanisms which enable the immune system to safely contain potentially self-reactive lymphocytes. Furthermore, it is argued that by means of artificial immunization against hsps or selected determinants of hsps, a development of autoimmune diseases may be inhibited.