Open AccessTrypanosoma cruzi and human ubiquitin are immunologically distinct proteins despite only three amino acid difference in their primary sequence
Author(s) -
Télles Senobia,
Abate Teresa,
Slezynger Thelma C,
Henríquez Diana A
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
fems immunology & medical microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1574-695X
pISSN - 0928-8244
DOI - 10.1111/j.1574-695x.1999.tb01273.x
Subject(s) - biology , trypanosoma cruzi , peptide sequence , ubiquitin , sequence (biology) , amino acid , primary (astronomy) , trypanosoma brucei , biochemistry , parasite hosting , gene , world wide web , computer science , physics , astronomy
The high similarity between Trypanosoma cruzi and human ubiquitin prompted us to characterize the human humoral immunity to host and parasite ubiquitin in Chagas disease and its possible role in Chagas autoimmunity. We have used a simplified one step purification procedure to partially purify T. cruzi ubiquitin. Using this preparation we have performed ELISA and Western blots, to show that chagasic sera recognise T. cruzi but not human or Leishmania ubiquitin indicating a species‐specific response. Our results show that despite the high degree of similarity in the primary structure of human and T. cruzi ubiquitins, the three amino acid difference is sufficient to distinguish parasite versus host proteins