Natalia Wegner

TL;DR: It is shown that P gingivalis rapidly generates citrullinated host peptides by proteolytic cleavage at Arg-X peptide bonds by arginine gingipains, followed bycitrullination of carboxy-terminal arginines by bacterial PAD.

TL;DR: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is now clearly a true autoimmune disease with accumulating evidence of pathogenic disease‐specific autoimmunity to citrullinated proteins, and both smoking and Porphyromonas gingivalis are attractive etiological agents for further investigation into the gene/environment/autoimmunities triad of RA.

TL;DR: The data on sequence similarity and cross-reactivity with bacterial enolase may indicate a role for bacterial infection, particularly with P gingivalis, in priming autoimmunity in a subset of patients with RA.

TL;DR: The hypothesis of molecular mimicry in the etiology of RA is explored, with citrullinated enolase as the specific antigen involved.

TL;DR: The results highlight the importance of synovial fluid for the expression of citrullinated autoantigens in inflammatory arthritis, and provide evidence that the alpha-enolase was citruLLinated in RA synvial fluid.