Dr. Animesh A. Sinha and his team at Cornell University in New York City are seeking blood donations from pemphigus vulgaris (PV) patients and healthy relatives, for a study into the cellular events that induce and perpetuate the disease. In particular, Dr. Sinha is working to identify the dominant epitopes of desmoglein 3. If successful, his research may lead to better diagnostic techniques and antigen-specific treatments for pemphigus.
Our preliminary work has shown that there is no one dominant epitope. Different patients respond to different epitopes, and individual patients often respond to more than one and may respond to different epitopes at different stages of disease. Said Carina Rizzo, a researcher working with Dr. Sinha.
An antigen is any group of molecules that trigger a response from the immune system. Antigens ordinarily include bacteria, viruses, cancer cells, foreign tissue and the like. Cells called Antigen Presenting Cells (APC) recognize antigens using Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) molecules on their surface. Each persons MHC is as individual as fingerprints. The APC binds to the antigen using an epitope; a group of antigen specific molecules that fit the antigen like a lock and key. Two types of lymphocytes, B cells and T cells, identify and mark the antigen for destruction by antibodies. In pemphigus and pemphigoid, desmoglein cells are misidentified by the body as foreign (nonself) tissue and destroyed, resulting in lesions.
PV patients and healthy relatives interested in donating blood should make an appointment by contacting Carina Rizzo, Monday through Friday, at 212-746-6554 or email her at chr2003@med.cornell.edu. Blood donation takes approximately 20 minutes in the Dermatology Clinic in the Star Pavilion, Room 301 at New York Presbyterian Hospital, Cornell Medical Center. The street address is 525 East 68th Street, in New York City.
Dr. Sinhas interest in this area began in his graduate studies at Stanford University where he successfully cloned the gene for the MHC class II molecule associated with PV.
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