Is microbial infection always harmful?

It is possible for microbial infection (including parasitic infection) to disrupt the balance of autoimmune tolerance, result in the dysfunction of immune system, and make the organism encountered with the attack of the autoimmune disease.As one of the common places between foreign antigens and autoantigens, molecular mimicry is believed to play a vital role in the pathogenesis of autoimmune diseases.However, a large number of studies suggest that rather than inducing various symptoms of autoimmune diseases, many infection of microorganisms covered with mimic peptide of the autoantigen may even protect the infected organism from the disease at the level of antibodies or T cells when the analogous antigen invaded again.The present paper reviews the possible prognosis after microbial infection based on molecular mimicry.

Molecular mimicry; Altered peptide ligand; Natural autoantibodies; Nonautoaggressive T cells