Origin of antiphospholipid antibodies

Induction of aPL by viral peptides

Gharavi, AE MD
Pierangeli, SS

Morehouse School of Medicine, Department of Medicine, Atlanta, USA

Professor of Medicine, Morehouse School of Medicine, 720 Westview Dr SW, Atlanta, GA 30310-1495, USA. E-mail: [email protected].

Lupus 7(2_suppl):p 52-54, February 1998. | DOI: 10.1177/096120339800700213

The clinical associations of antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL) are well recognized but the mechanism(s) causing the production of these antibodies are not yet known. We demonstrated the induction of pathogenic aPL antibodies that caused intrauterine fetal death and transverse myelopathy due to spinal cord infarction in mice by immunization with foreign β2GPl. We also induced aPL and anti-β2-GPI in mice by immunization with PL-binding viral peptides and hypothesized that in APS patients, aPL may be induced by β2GPl-like-PL-binding products of common human bacteria and viruses.