The Value of Epitope Mapping in Autoimmune Diseases Editorial

Autoantibody synthesis accompanies many idiopathic chronic inflammatory diseases. Autoantibody assays are useful diagnos-tic tools. However, autoantibodies against intracellular compo-nents cannot cause the destruction of an intact cell under normal conditions. Epitope mapping of recombinant proteins has de-fined the principal antigenic determinants that are recognized by various autoantibodies. One aim of these studies has been to identify regions of autoantigens that might cross react anti-genically with environmental pathogens. However, the results have been inconclusive, because most antibodies recognize complex three-dimensional structures that depend upon protein folding. It has proven very difficult to pinpoint a particular amino acid sequence that constitutes an entire autoantibody epitope. T lymphocytes, as opposed to antibodies, recognize shor