Viruses and Autoimmunity POI

我们的目标是了解几种候选病毒感染如何在多发性硬化症(EAE)和糖尿病模型(von Herrath和Fujinami)中增强自身免疫性疾病。这一PPG所涉及的新颖方面包括： 1.假设病毒感染将能够为自体侵袭性淋巴细胞提供一片肥沃的田地，或者增强已经存在的但亚临床的自体免疫过程。 2.涉及模仿和旁观者激活的详细机制分析，特别是对病毒触发的自身抗原提呈和来自APC/免疫蛋白酶体一侧的自侵袭性淋巴细胞激活的基本机制方面的理解(Whitton)。 这些新的发现将有助于以更定向/更机械的方式探索病毒与人类自身免疫之间的联系。

Our goal here is to understand how several candidate viral infections enhance autoimmune disease in multiple sclerosis (EAE) and diabetes disease models (von Herrath and Fujinami). The novel aspects addressed by this PPG are: 1. The hypothesis that viral infections will be able to provide a 'fertile field' for autoaggressive lymphocytes or enhance already pre-existing but sub-clinical autoimmune processes. 2. The detailed mechanistic analysis involving mimicry as well as bystander activation, in particular the understanding of the basic mechanistic aspects of virally triggered presentation of autoantigens and activation of autoaggressive lymphocytes from the APC/immuno-proteasome side (Whitton). The emerging findings will be useful in pursuing the link between viruses and autoimmunity in humans in a more directional/mechanistic way.