2009/07/01 by Javid P. Mohammed, Jochen Mattner · 1 citation
Medicine · Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Immunology and Microbiology · #Liver Diseases and Immunity #Diabetes and associated disorders #T-cell and B-cell Immunology #Autoimmunity #Immunology #Biology #Primary biliary cirrhosis #Autoimmune disease #Alphaproteobacteria #Disease #Antibody #Microbiology #Genetics #Medicine #Bacteria #Internal medicine
paper · doi:10.1586/eci.09.23
openalex publication_date 2009/07/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Despite having long been postulated, compelling evidence for the theory that microbial triggers drive autoimmunity has only recently been reported. A specific association between Novosphingobium aromaticivorans, an ubiquitous alphaproteobacterium, and primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) has been uncovered in patients with PBC. Notably, the association between Novosphingobium infection and PBC has been confirmed in a mouse model in which infection leads to the development of liver lesions resembling PBC concomitant with the production of anti-PDC-E2 antibodies that cross-react with conserved PDC-E2 epitopes shared by Novosphingobium. The discovery of infectious triggers of autoimmunity is likely to change our current concepts about the etiology of various autoimmune syndromes and may suggest new and simpler ways to diagnose and treat these debilitating diseases.