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“Catching heart disease”: Antigenic mimicry and bacterial infections

Nature Medicine volume 6, pages 841–842 (2000)Cite this article

To the editor

Supporters of the “new germ theory” argue that common human diseases are caused by infectious agents. Cardiovascular disease is predicted to be the commonest cause of death worldwide by the year 2020. Half of heart disease patients lack established risk factors, but epidemiological evidence pointed to a linkage between infection with Chlamydia bacteria and heart disease1. We have previously shown that Chlamydia-mediated heart disease in mice can be induced by antigenic mimicry of a heart muscle-specific protein, and thus provided a molecular link between Chlamydia infections and heart disease2. However, studies designed to reveal a correlation between future risk of heart disease and Chlamydia infection have been inconclusive3,4. While these results mitigate against the “infection hypothesis”, they are not surprising if organisms other than Chlamydia also supply mimicking epitopes.

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Figure 1: Histopathology of inflammatory heart disease.

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Amgen Institute, Ontario Cancer Institute Depts of Medical Biophysics and Immunology University of Toronto, 620 University Avenue, Toronto, M5G 2C1, Ontario, Canada

    Kurt Bachmaier, Jenny Le & Josef M. Penninger

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  1. Kurt Bachmaier
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  2. Jenny Le
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  3. Josef M. Penninger
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Bachmaier, K., Le, J. & Penninger, J. “Catching heart disease”: Antigenic mimicry and bacterial infections. Nat Med 6, 841–842 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/78561

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