Reader Comments
Post a new comment on this article
Post Your Discussion Comment
Please follow our guidelines for comments and review our competing interests policy. Comments that do not conform to our guidelines will be promptly removed and the user account disabled. The following must be avoided:
- Remarks that could be interpreted as allegations of misconduct
- Unsupported assertions or statements
- Inflammatory or insulting language
Thank You!
Thank you for taking the time to flag this posting; we review flagged postings on a regular basis.
closeCross-reactivity ?
Posted by ChrisCarter on 05 Dec 2012 at 12:25 GMT
Do antibodies to T.Gondii cross-react with gliadin or other gluten components (or vice versa) ?
RE: Cross-reactivity ?
emilyseverance replied to ChrisCarter on 05 Dec 2012 at 18:24 GMT
This question is very important, as is the question of whether or not any of these antibodies cross-react with brain proteins. Serum from some of our mock-IP-infected mice showed elevated antibodies to gluten but not to T. gondii, suggesting a lack of cross-reactivity at least in this direction. It might be interesting, however, to screen various combinations of T. gondii-pos/neg and gluten-pos/neg mouse and human sera with peptide microarrays. These arrays could contain both linear and conformational peptide sequences of T. gondii and gliadin, so we would be able to further delineate specific shared epitopes and subsequently the degree of cross-reactivity of these antibodies. Additionally, we could test available (or otherwise generate) monoclonal or mono-specific anti-peptide antibodies directed against T. gondii for screening in the gluten assays and vice versa.