The comparative biochemistry of viruses and humans: an evolutionary path towards autoimmunity.

The comparative biochemistry of viruses and humans: an evolutionary path towards autoimmunity. Biol Chem. 2018 Dec 03;: Authors: Kanduc D Abstract Analyses of the peptide sharing between five common human viruses (Borna disease virus, influenza A virus, measles virus, mumps virus and rubella virus) and the human proteome highlight a massive viral vs. human peptide overlap that is mathematically unexpected. Evolutionarily, the data underscore a strict relationship between viruses and the origin of eukaryotic cells. Indeed, according to the viral eukaryogenesis hypothesis and in light of the endosymbiotic theory, the first eukaryotic cell (our lineage) originated as a consortium consisting of an archaeal ancestor of the eukaryotic cytoplasm, a bacterial ancestor of the mitochondria and a viral ancestor of the nucleus. From a pathologic point of view, the peptide sequence similarity between viruses and humans may provide a molecular platform for autoimmune crossreactions during immune responses following viral infections/immunizations. PMID: 30504522 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Biological Chemistry - Category: Chemistry Tags: Biol Chem Source Type: research