Examples of autoimmune conditions induced by bacterial or 
viral infection include rheumatic fever, acute glomerulonephritis, 
Goodpasture's disease, experimental allergic encephalomyelitis, 
and experimental antiglomerular basement membrane nephritis. 
Esquivel, Rose, and Kong have shown that purified mouse thyro- 
globulin combined with bacterial surface polysaccharides causes 
20 / 
a potent autoimmune response when injected into mice. — ' 
Fragments of proteins can fold into native domains. This 
has been found to hold for large fragments such as the constant 
region of immunoglobulins and small fragments such as amino acids 
53-69 of staphylococcal nuclease and a 17 residue disulfide loop in 
i 21/ 
lysozyme. — 
An immune response to such domains may result in the 
production of antibodies which cross-react with vital indigenous 
proteins. The interactive nature of the immune response may make 
a protein which is a combination of native and novel domains 
a good breaker of immunological tolerance. This is especially 
true if the protein is presented in the context of a bacterial 
cell surface. 
Thus, several testable questions remain to be answered 
before the risks inherent in shotgun experiments with eukaryotic 
DNA and cDNA are understood. Until these experiments are carried 
out and published in the scientific literature, the current 
containment levels should be maintained. 
20/ P. S. Esquivel et al. , Journal of Experimental Medicine, 145 
(1977) , 1250. 
21 / M. Z. Attasi, et al., Biochimica et Biophysica Acta, 420 (1976), 
358-375; M. Z. Attasi, et al., ibid . , 427 (1976), 745-751; 
M. Z. Attasi, et al. , Immunochemistry , 13 (1976), 7-14; 
M. Z. Attasi, et al. , ibid., 13 (1976), 547-555; J. G. Curd, 
et al. , Federation Proceedings , 34 (1975) , 550. 
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