Off-campus UNL users: To download campus access dissertations, please use the following link to log into our proxy server with your NU ID and password. When you are done browsing please remember to return to this page and log out.

Non-UNL users: Please talk to your librarian about requesting this dissertation through interlibrary loan.

Cytoplasmic Proteins as Autoantigens in the Development of Inflammatory Heart Disease

Bharathi Yalaka, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Abstract

Inflammatory heart disease can result from infectious or non-infectious etiologies. When infectious causes are involved, autoimmune responses are commonly suspected to explain persistence of inflammation, leading to the suggestion that pathogens primarily affecting the target organs can lead to a secondary generation of autoimmune responses. In addressing this hypothesis, we had previously reported that Coxsackievirus B3 (CVB) infection accompanies the generation of cardiac myosin-specific T cells, which can transfer disease to naïve mice. This work led us to propose that the postinfectious phase of CVB infection involves the generation of autoreactive T cells with multiple antigen specificities. To this end, we made efforts to identify cardiac autoantigens that can potentially become immune targets in the CVB pathogenesis. First, by establishing T cell hybridoma technology, we generated T cell hybridomas for cardiac myosin that may be helpful in tracking cells expressing viral proteins in vivo. Second, we demonstrated that mitochondrial protein, branched chain α-ketoacid dehydrogenase kinase (BCKDk ) can act as a target antigen in the mediation of both autoimmune myocarditis and hepatitis. Third, we identified an antigenic determinant from sarcoplasmic/endoplasmic reticulum calcium-ATPase (SERCA2a) that induces mainly atrial inflammation. The implications of our observations are two-fold: (a) the new disease models (BCKDk and SERCA2a) can be used to determine inflammatory events arising from autoimmune responses in both the heart and liver, and (b) identification of immunodominant epitopes in BCKDk and SERCA2a proteins is helpful in evaluating the relevance of epitope spreading as an autoimmune mechanism in the development of CVB-induced chronic myocarditis in future studies.

Subject Area

Immunology

Recommended Citation

Yalaka, Bharathi, "Cytoplasmic Proteins as Autoantigens in the Development of Inflammatory Heart Disease" (2017). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI10690859.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI10690859

Share

COinS