title: Is there a role for Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis in Parkinson's disease?
abstract: In Parkinson's disease (PD) ZnT proteins play an important role. Zinc is a co-factor of numerous enzymes and stabilizes the tertiary structure of several proteins. Nothing is known about previous infections mediated by Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP). We evaluated if a previous infection with MAP could induce the production of antibodies that cross-reacted with the Znt homologous antigenic peptides associated to Parkinson. The humoral response toward MAP3865c peptides, ZnT3 and ZnT10 was evaluated. The hypothesis of cross-reactivity needs to be confirmed; we have observed the presence of MAP in PD patients by PCR, positivity to MAP3865c peptides, therefore MAP infection but not cross-reaction with human homologous Znt proteins.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche, Sezione di Microbiologia e Virologia, Università di Sassari, Italy; Dipartimento di Medicina Clinica e Sperimentale, Università di Sassari, Viale San Pietro 43b, 07100 Sassari, Italy.
authors.forename: Giannina
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Arru
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche, Sezione di Microbiologia e Virologia, Università di Sassari, Italy.
authors.forename: Elisa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Caggiu
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Medicina Clinica e Sperimentale, Università di Sassari, Viale San Pietro 43b, 07100 Sassari, Italy.
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Paulus
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Medicina Clinica e Sperimentale, Università di Sassari, Viale San Pietro 43b, 07100 Sassari, Italy.
authors.forename: Gian Pietro
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Sechi
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche, Sezione di Microbiologia e Virologia, Università di Sassari, Italy.
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Mameli
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche, Sezione di Microbiologia e Virologia, Università di Sassari, Italy. Electronic address: sechila@uniss.it.
authors.forename: Leonardo A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Sechi
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial / Q000276:immunology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D027682:Cation Transport Proteins / Q000276:immunology; D003429:Cross Reactions / Q000276:immunology; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016927:Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis / Q000276:immunology*; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000276:immunology* / Q000382:microbiology; D010455:Peptides / Q000276:immunology; D012372:ROC Curve; D000075703:Zinc Transporter 8
chemical_list: D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial; D027682:Cation Transport Proteins; D007074:Immunoglobulin G; D010455:Peptides; C102806:SLC30A3 protein, human; C492522:SLC30A8 protein, human; D000075703:Zinc Transporter 8
keywords: Antigenic peptides; Autoimmunity; MAP; Parkinson's disease; ZnT proteins