Origin of antiphospholipid antibodies

The origin of the antiphospholipid antibodies and mechanisms involved in their production in patients with the antiphospholipid syndrome is not understood. The authors hypothesize that incidental exposure to phospholipid-binding viral or bacterial products that have structural similarity to the phospholipid binding site of beta (2)-glycoprotein I and like this protein can bind to phospholipids and may trigger the antiphospholipid antibody production in these patients. As a support for this hypothesis the authors describe production of pathogenic antiphospholipid antibodies in normal mice by immunization with a synthetic phospholipid-binding viral peptide that has sequence similarity with beta (2)-glycoprotein I (molecular mimicry).