A team led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) has discovered an unusual bacterial protein that attaches to virtually any antibody and prevents it from binding to its target. Protein M, as it is called, probably helps some bacteria evade the immune response and establish long-term infections. If follow-up studies confirm Protein M's ability to defeat the antibody response, it is likely to become a target of new antibacterial therapies. The protein's unique ability to bind generally to antibodies also should make it a valuable tool for research and drug development.
"What Protein M does to antibodies represents a very clever trick of evolution," said Richard A. Lerner, MD, Lita Annenberg Hazen Professor of Immunochemistry and Institute Professor at TSRI who led the research. The new findings, which were achieved through collaboration among several laboratories at TSRI and elsewhere, are described in the journal
Science.
The unexpected discovery originated from an effort to understand the origin of multiple myeloma, a B-cell carcinoma. Clonal B-cell proliferation, as well as lymphomas and myelomas, can result from chronic infections by organisms such as Escherichia coli, Helicobacter pylori and hepatitis C virus.
