Antigenic mimickry

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See also molecular mimicry

This term describes a phenomenon encountered in diseases of the immune system, where the immune system cross-reacts to antigens from different sources. For example, some autoimmune diseases are thought to arise from a normal immune response to an environmental antigen, if there is cross-reactivity between the environmental antigen and a self-protein. This cross-reactivity leads to a pathogenic autoimmune response. In this case, the pathogenic protein is said to be mimicking the self-protein.

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