Immunodietica: interrogating the role of diet in autoimmune disease.

Diet is an environmental factor in autoimmune disorders, where the immune system erroneously destroys one's own tissues. Yet, interactions between diet and autoimmunity remain largely unexplored, particularly the impact of immunogenetics, one's human leukocyte antigen (HLA) allele make-up, in this interplay. Here, we interrogated animals and plants for the presence of epitopes implicated in human autoimmune diseases. We mapped autoimmune epitope distribution across organisms and determined their tissue expression pattern. Interestingly, diet-derived epitopes implicated in a disease were more likely to bind to HLA alleles associated with that disease than to protective alleles, with visible differences between organisms with similar autoimmune epitope content. We then analyzed an individual's HLA haplotype, generating a personalized heatmap of potential dietary autoimmune triggers. Our work uncovered differences in autoimmunogenic potential across food sources and revealed differential binding of diet-derived epitopes to autoimmune disease-associated HLA alleles, shedding light on the impact of diet on autoimmunity.

Stimulation of luminescence of mycelium of luminous fungus Neonothopanus nambi by ionizing radiation.

The luminescent system of higher luminous fungi is not fully understood and the enzyme/substrate pair of the light emission reaction has not been isolated. It was suggested that luminescence of fungi involves oxidase-type enzymes, and reactive oxygen species are important for fungal light production. Generation of reactive oxygen species can be stimulated by ionizing irradiation, which has not been studied for luminous fungi. We report the effect of X-irradiation on the luminescence of fungus Neonothopanus nambi. Experiments were performed with mycelium on a home-built setup based on an X-ray tube and monochromator/photomultiplier tube. Application of X-rays does not change the emission spectrum, but after approximately 20 min of continuous irradiation, light production from unsupported mycelium starts growing and increases up to approximately five times. After peaking, its level decreases irrespective of the presence of X-irradiation. After staying at a certain level, light production collapses to zero, which is not related to the drying of the mycelium or thermal impact of radiation. The observed shape of kinetics is characteristic of a multistage and/or chain reaction. The time profile of light production must reflect the current levels of radicals present in the system and/or the activity of enzyme complexes involved in light production.