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Selective modification and immune evasion: A hypothesis
Author(s) -
KUMAR SANJEEV
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
immunology and cell biology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.999
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1440-1711
pISSN - 0818-9641
DOI - 10.1038/icb.1993.15
Subject(s) - biology , immune system , parasite hosting , enzyme , evasion (ethics) , host (biology) , neutralization , adaptation (eye) , antibody , biochemistry , immunology , genetics , neuroscience , world wide web , computer science
Summary A hypothesis is proposed asking why enzyme neutralization is not an effective host‐response to a parasite despite the fact that some parasite housekeeping enzymes are highly immunogenic. It is hypothesized that although the structural domain can be immunogenic, the active sites of the parasite enzyme molecules have converged evolutionarily to resemble the functional part (active sites) of host's enzyme molecules, by structural modification/rearrangement (amino acid substitution/polypeptide chain folding) with the effect: (i) of functional adaptation to the host environment; and (ii) to escape detection of active sites by the host as non‐self, allowing the parasite to be exposed to antiparasite enzyme antibodies, without deleterious effects on the parasite.