Molecular mimicry hypothesis and autoimmunity

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The mechanism of molecular mimicry has been postulated to explain the development of autoimmunity. According to molecular mimicry mechanism, the infectious agents or pathogens trigger an immune response against the autoantigens. According to this hypothesis a susceptible host gets infected with a pathogen that has antigens immunologically similar to the host antigens but differ sufficiently to induce an immune response when presented to T cells. Consequently, tolerance to autoantigens breaks down leading to cross-reaction of the pathogen-specific immune response ...