Summary of Findings¶
The MD simulation results suggest that kp1 is the most likely microbial peptide to structurally and dynamically mimic the self-peptide anx. This resemblance supports the hypothesis that kp1 may participate in molecular mimicry mechanisms, potentially contributing to immune cross-reactivity in HLA-B27-associated conditions.
Limitations and Future Work¶
Due to the limited number of peptides analyzed, the findings of this study are preliminary. Future work will focus on expanding the peptide dataset to enable systematic screening and the application of machine learning approaches for identifying molecular mimicry patterns. In addition, structural superposition and immunogenicity prediction will be required to confirm functional mimicry in the context of HLA-B27-associated immune cross-reactivity.