Page 476 - AWSAR 2.0

452 || AWSAR Awarded Popular Science Stories - 2019
Exploring the Phenomenon of Molecular Mimicry for Drug Repurposing against Autoimmune Diseases
Email: anjali.garg.biophysics@south.du.ac.in
Ms. Anjali Garg*
In literary terms, mimicry can be understood as a resemblance of one organism with another for selective advantage. Mimicry, as
observed in nature, is not only an ecological phenomenon; it is observed in the microbial world, too!! Many pathogenic bacteria exhibit mimicry with the host proteins to escape the immune response of the host. Molecular mimicrycanbedefinedasstructural,functional or immunological similarity between the host and pathogen macromolecules. Molecular mimicry can be present in the form of complete identity or homology at the protein level, or as a similarity in the sequences of amino acids or as a structural similarity between the host and pathogen proteins. Sometimes the host develops an immune response against the self-proteins involved in molecular mimicry,
which results in autoimmune diseases. One of the classical examples of molecular mimicry is between the M protein of Streptococcus pyogenes and the human heart myosin protein, which results in autoimmune heart disease. Besides autoimmune reactions, some microbes use molecular mimicry as a phenomenon to avoid, subvert or inhibit host’s innate immunity. Although there are many scientific reports that have discussed various pathogen proteins and autoimmune diseases, yet a unified resource where this information is collated and presented in an organized manner does not exist. Thus, our team at the Department of Biophysics, University of Delhi South Campus (UDSC), worked on developing a freely accessible database of mimicry proteins and peptides, which was
* Ms. Anjali Garg, PhD Scholar from University of Delhi South Campus, Delhi, is pursuing her research on “Annotation of Protein Features Important for the Pathogen”. Her popular science story entitled “Exploring the Phenomenon of Molecular Mimicry for Drug Repurposing Against Autoimmune Diseases” has been selected for AWSAR Award.