Innate immunity against molecular mimicry: Examining galectin-mediated antimicrobial activity

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Connie Arthur, Emory University; Nourine A. Kamili, Emory University; Seema Patel, Emory University; Amanda Mener, Emory University; Ross Fasano, Emory University; Erin Meyer, Emory University; Anne Winkler, Emory University; Martha Sola-Visner, Boston Childrens Hospital; Cassandra Josephson, Emory University; Sean Stowell, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2015-12-01
• Publisher: Wiley
• Publication Version: Author Accepted Manuscript (After Peer Review)
• Copyright Statement: © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/bies.201500055
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: BioEssays
• Volume: 37
• Issue: 12
• Start Page: 1327
• End Page: 1337
• Grant/Funding Information: This work was supported in part by the National Blood Foundation, Hemophilia of Georgia, the Burroughs Wellcome Trust Career Award for Medical Scientists and the National Institutes of Health grant DP5OD019892 to SRS.
• Keywords: Biochemistry & Molecular Biology; Sialic acids; Science & Technology; lectins; Life Sciences & Biomedicine - Other Topics; Glycan microarrays; innate immunity; Promotes HIV-1 infectivity; recognition; galectins; microbes; carbohydrates; Biology; Host cells; Protein glycocsylation; T-cell death; Group B streptococcus; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; Carbohydraye microarrays; Oyster crassostrea virginica; adaptive immunity
• Research Categories: Biology, Microbiology; Health Sciences, Immunology; Chemistry, Biochemistry; Biology, Cell

Abstract

Adaptive immunity provides the unique ability to respond to a nearly infinite range of antigenic determinants. Given the inherent plasticity of the adaptive immune system, a series of tolerance mechanisms exist to reduce reactivity toward self. While this reduces the probability of autoimmunity, it also creates an important gap in adaptive immunity: the ability to recognize microbes that look like self. As a variety of microbes decorate themselves in self-like carbohydrate antigens and tolerance reduces the ability of adaptive immunity to react with self-like structures, protection against molecular mimicry likely resides within the innate arm of immunity. In this review, we will explore the potential consequences of microbial molecular mimicry, including factors within innate immunity that appear to specifically target microbes expressing self-like antigens, and therefore provide protection against molecular mimicry.