Institute of
bioorganic chemistry

A team of scientists from the Laboratory of comparative and functional genomics of IBCh RAS in collaboration with researchers from Universities of Stanford and Oxford, as wells as Washington University of St. Louis described structure and peptide motif recognized by T cell receptors (TCRs) associated with ankylosing spondylitis (AS). Structural analysis of TCRpMHC complexes allowed to identify shared binding motif present in both self-antigens and microbial antigens that engages AS-related TCRs. These findings support the hypothesis that cross-reactivity between microbial and self-antigens can be considered as a trigger event for pathogenesis of ankylosing spondylitis. The results of the study have been recently published in Nature. Learn more