Molecular mimicry, protein misfolding, and NDS

Accumulation of aggregates of misfolded proteins occurs in several neurodegenerativediseases such as Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson Disease, Huntington Disease,amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and transmissible spongiform encephalopathy.

We have considered the possibility that the molecularmimicry between parasite OV16 and human brain PEBP1 might also result in misfoldingof PEBP1. This is because, we reasoned, the structurally similar OV16 serves astemplate for PEBP1 misfolding as happens for prion proteins.  

We used two algorithms for predicting how prone a protein isto misfolding and aggregation (polarity index method and AGGRESCAN).  The results came out negative. OV16  is not a misfolded protein.