作者
Cristina Gil‐Cruz,Christian Perez‐Shibayama,Angelina De Martin,Francesca Ronchi,Katrien Van der Borght,Rebekka Niederer,Lucas Onder,Mechthild Lütge,Mario Novković,Veronika Nindl,Gustavo Campos Ramos,Markus Arnoldini,Emma Slack,Valérie Boivin‐Jahns,Roland Jahns,Madeleine Wyss,Catherine Mooser,Bart N. Lambrecht,Micha T. Maeder,Hans Rickli,Lukas Flatz,Urs Eriksson,Markus B. Geuking,Kathy D. McCoy,Burkhard Ludewig
摘要
Peptide mimicry breaks the heart Myocarditis, a prolonged chronic inflammation of heart muscle, can eventually progress to inflammatory cardiomyopathy, a serious condition associated with heart failure. Activated T helper (T H ) cells that recognize myosin heavy chain 6–derived peptides are thought to play a central role in this pathogenesis. Using a mouse model of myocarditis, Gil-Cruz et al. found that cardiac myosin–reactive T H cells are initially primed by myosin-peptide mimics derived from commensal Bacteroides species in the gut (see the Perspective by Epelman). Unlike heathy controls, human myocarditis patients also showed detectable immune reactivity to both Bacteroides and cardiac myosin antigens. Treatment with antibiotics dampened inflammatory responses and prevented lethal heart disease. Science , this issue p. 881 ; see also p. 806