Chaperonins and the immune response.

Chaperonins are a major target of the immune response to bacteria. Infection, or immunization, with bacteria induces a strong antibody response to chaperonins, and the same proteins also provide a focus for activation of T lymphocyte subsets--including CD4, CD8 and gamma-delta T cells. The high degree of sequence conservation between prokaryotic and eukaryotic chaperonins makes them candidate antigens for models of autoimmunity based on molecular mimicry, and it is possible that the immune response to chaperonins has both protective and pathogenic potential. The interactions between chaperonins and the immune response are reviewed in this article, primarily from the perspective of intracellular bacterial infection.