Viruses and Autoimmunity

[n.panjwani at ic.ac.uk]

I have a question that won't resolve itself bywayof the people here. So let
me put it to ou all:

Orthopoxviruses (esp. Vaccinia and Cowpox) have been shown to secrete a
soluble version of an IL1-beta receptor. This has quite a bit of homology to
the human IL1 receptor, but has lost the transmembrane anchor region and
also lost the ability to bind IL1-alpha.

Now obviously, this can diminish the inflammatory response by sweeping up
secreted IL1B, and this has been shown to modulate cowpox pathogenecity in
mouse models. But how can this possibly induce Autoimmunity, other than by
the fact that there may be some molecular mimicry between the human IL1
receptor and the viral homologue. Is there any direct immune response 
consequence any of you can see, that a virus producing IL1 receptor might
engender to cause autoimmune reaction via any quarter (humoral or cellular).
Hell, I certainly can't

Naveed Panjwani