complement system

The complement system comprises an assembly of liver-manufactured, soluble and cell-bound proteins that participate in innate and adaptive immunity. Activation of the complement cascade by protease cleavage leads to chemotaxis (C5a), inflammation and increased capillary permeability (C3a, C5a), opsonization (C3b), and cytolysis.

▼activation : alternative pathway : amplification by C3 : anaphylatoxins C3a, C5a : antigen uptake : C1 : C2 : C3 : C4 : C5 : C6 : C7 : C8 : C9 : C1INH : CD59 : chemotaxis : classical pathway : complement cascade : complement control proteins : convertases C3, C3/C5, C5 : disorders : evolution : Factor B : Factor H : Factor I : ficolins : immunoglobulins and complement activation : inhibitory proteins : lectin pathway : MBL -MAPS : mannose-binding lectin pathway : membrane attack complex : opsonin : pathways : perforin : phagocytosis : pore : proteases : regulation : serine proteases : sialic acid ▼

Sequential activation of the protein components of the complement cascade upon cleavage by a protease, leads to each component's becoming, in its turn, a protease. Three pathways are involved in complement attack upon pathogens:
● classical pathway
● alternative pathway
● mannose-binding lectin pathway (MBL -MAPS)

The classical pathway utilizes C1, which is activated by binding of an antibody to its cognate antigen.

Inactive C1 circulates as a serum molecular complex comprising 6 C1q molecules, 2 C1r molecules, and 2 C1s molecules. Constant regions in some immunoglobulins specifically bind C1q, activating C1r and C1s. The mu chains of IgM and some gamma chains of IgG contain specific binding sites, though IgM is far more effective than IgG.

Activated C1s is a serine protease that cleaves C4 and C2 into small inactive fragments (C4a, C2a) and larger active fragments, C4b and C2b. The active component C4b binds to the sugar moieties of surface glycoproteins and binds noncovalently to C2b, forming another serine protease C4b•C2b, which is called C3 convertase because it cleaves C3, releasing an active C3b opsonin fragment.

Macrophages and neutrophils possess receptors for C3b, so cells coated with C3b are targetted for phagocytosis (opsonization). The small C3a fragment is released into solution where it can bind to basophils and mast cells, triggering histamine release and, as an anaphylatoxin, potentially participating in anaphylaxis.

C3 amplifies the humoral response because of its abundance and its ability to auto-activate (as a C3 convertase). Breakdown of C3b generates an antigen-binding C3d fragment that enhances antigen uptake by dendritic cells and B cells .

Binding of C3b to C5 induces an allosteric change that exposes C3b•C5 to cleavage by C4b•C2b, which is now acting as C3/C5 convertase. The alternative pathway possesses a distinct C5 convertase, so the two pathways converge through C5.

Cleavage of C5 by the C3/C5 convertase releases:
● anaphylotoxic C5a, which promotes chemotaxis of neutrophils
● C5b, which complexes with one molecule of each of C6, C7, and C8. The resultant C5b•6•7•8 complex assists polymerization of as many as 18 C9 molecules to form a cytolysis-promoting pore (membrane attack complex, tem) through the plasma membrane of the target cell, which then suffers osmosis-induced cytolysis.

Another cytolytic mediator utilized by CTLs and NK cells is perforin, which is a 534 aa glycoprotein with sequence homology to the membrane attack component of complement C9. Like C9, perforin integrates into the target cell membrane, forming polyprotein pores up to 20nm in diameter comprising 12—18 perforin monomers, which breach membrane integrity and permit cytolytic cell death.

The alternative pathway is not activated by antigen-antibody binding, but instead relies upon spontaneous conversion of C3 to C3b, which is rapidly inactivated by its binding to inhibitory proteins and sialic acid on the cell's surface. Because bacteria and other foreign materials lack these inhibitory proteins and sialic acid, the C3b is not inactivated and it forms the C3b•Bb complex with Factor B. The C3b.Bb complex acts as a C3 convertase, forming C3b•Bb•C3b, which acts as a C5 convertase that can ititiate assembly of the membrane attack complex. C3b•Bb, acting as a C3 convertase, provides a positive feedback loop that amplifies production of C3.

The lectin pathway (MBL - MASP) is homologous to the classical pathway, but utilizes opsonin, mannan-binding lectin (MBL, MBP) and ficolins rather than C1q. Binding of mannan-binding lectin to mannose residues on the pathogen surface activates the MBL-associated serine proteases, MASP-1, MASP-2, MASP-3, which cleave C4 into C4b and C2 into C2b. As in the classical pathway, C4b and C2b bind to form the C4b•C2b C3 convertase. Ficolins are homologous to MBL and function through MASPs. Diversified ficolins are of particular importance in invertebrates, which lack the adaptive immune response that evolved some 500 million years ago in jawed vertebrates.

Several complement control proteins regulate activity of the complement system, including:
● C1 inhibitor (C1INH), which eliminates the proteolytic activity of activated C1r and C1s. Following C1 activation by antigen-antibody complexes, C1INH permits only a brief interval during which activated C1 can cleave C4 and C2.
● Factor I, which inactivates C3b
● Factor H, which removes Bb, thus interrupting the C3 convertase feedback loop within the alternative pathway
● CD59, which inhibits C9 polymerization during assembly of the membrane attack complex.

Dysregulation of the complement system manifests variously as immune complex disorders (C2 deficiency), susceptibility to bacterial infections (C3 deficiency), the autoimmune disorder SLE (early component or C2 deficiency), hereditary angioneurotic edema (HANE) (C1INH deficiency).

▲ activation : alternative pathway : amplification by C3 : anaphylotoxins C3a, C5a ф antibodies ф antigen : antigen uptake : C1 : C2 : C3 : C4 : C5 : C6 : C7 : C8 : C9 : C1INH : CD59 : chemotaxis : classical pathway : complement cascade : complement control proteins : convertases C3, C3/C5, C5 : disorders : evolution : Factor B : Factor H : Factor I : ficolins : immunoglobulins and complement activation : inhibitory proteins : lectin pathway : MBL -MAPS : mannose-binding lectin pathway : membrane attack complex : opsonin : pathways : perforin : phagocytosis : pore : proteases : regulation : serine proteases : sialic acid ▲

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tags [Immunology][complement]

evolution of immune and coagulation systems

Immune system
The innate immune system is ancient and displays roots roughly one billion years old, deep in the deuterostome branch of the bilaterians (pre-Cambrian). The lectin pathway (MBL - MASP) is homologous to the classical complement pathway, but utilizes opsonin, mannan-binding lectin (MBL, MBP) and ficolins rather than C1q. Diversified ficolins are of particular importance in invertebrates, which lack the adaptive immune response that evolved some 500 million years ago in jawed vertebrates.

Macrophage scavenger receptors appear to mediate important, conserved functions, so it was likely pattern-recognition receptors that arose early in the evolution of host-defense mechanisms. Eicosanoids play a prominent role in inflammatory/immune responses and the evolution of eicosanoid receptors has been analyzed on the basis of amino acid sequences. Eiconasoid receptors are located on a variety of cells, tissues, and organs and can be activated by either non-selective or selective ligands.

The more specific, versatile, memory-capable adaptive immune response evolved more recently, roughly 450 million years ago, and is found in the jawed vertebrates (gnathostomes) but not in invertebrates.

Although the B cells of higher vertebrates lack phagocytic capabilities, it has recently been demonstrated that B cells from teleost (bony) fish and amphibians display potent phagocytic activities. Particle uptake by B cells induced activation of 'downstream' degradative pathways, leading to 'phagolysosome' formation and intracellular killing of ingested microbes. It is most probable that the less-elaborated, restrictive adaptive immune response of fish and amphibians makes the preservation of phagocytosis an evolutionary advantage to B cells in their defence against pathogens. These findings support the idea that B cells evolved from an ancestral phagocytic cell type, providing an evolutionary framework for understanding the close relationship between mammalian B lymphocytes and macrophages.[a, n]

Mast cell degranulation releases histamine and other vasoactive mediators in response to allergens. Although this reaction is most often encountered in allergic reactions, it apparently evolved as a defense system against intestinal parasitism, such as tapeworm infestations.

The versatile immunoglobulin superfamily is evolutionarily ancient, is widely expressed, and is constitutive or long-term up-regulated. Immunoglobulin antibodies are released by activated B cells of the immune system, on which they also act as surface marker proteins. The enormous diversity of antibodies is attributable to the alternative splicing of VDJ recombination.

RAG1 and RAG2, the proteins that mediate VDJ recombination, are closely related to transposases, and it is believed that evolution of the vertebrate genome includes their entry as part of a Transib superfamily transposon.

Blood coagulation employs the same fundamental mechanism in all vertebrates, from the early diverging jawless fishes to mammals.[1]. It has been amply demonstrated that all groups of fish generate thrombin through pathways that:
● utilize vitamin K-dependent factors
● exhibit factor XIII-dependent fibrin cross-linking, and
● manifest a fibrinolysis inhibited by the same antifibrinolytic agents as mammals (1–3).

(Thrombin-generated fibrin coagulation has not been observed in nonvertebrate chordates or in other invertebrate animals.)

Such a convoluted pathway as the clotting cascade could not have evolved as a single event. Proponents of "intelligent design theory" attempted to monopolize on this fact in order to promote their claims that an intelligent designer (God) must be responsible for the so-called "irreducible complexity" of the coagulation cascade. (Behe is a little more cautious in his wording, but the implied argument is as stated above.) Just as for the claims of irreducible complexity for evolution of the eye and the bacterial flagellum, the argument has been both logically and scientifically refuted.

Scientists realized some time ago that a series of gene duplications must be responsible for the complex set of interactions observed in mammalian clotting. Sequence comparisons of serine proteases led to the suggestion that the contact system of clotting factors ( factors XI and XII, and prekallikrein) must have evolved more recently than some of the other clotting factors and thus would likely be absent in lower vertebrates (4).

The genome sequences (5) for the puffer fish, Fugu rubripes, along with that for the urochordate (sea squirt) Ciona intes (6) have enabled a direct comparison of two early diverging chordates. The genomes confirm that the main lines of the vertebrate clotting pathway were evolved during the less than a hundred million years between the last common ancestor of these two creatures. It is currently believed that 50–100 million years separate the appearances of urochordates (including the sea squirt) and vertebrates. During this interval, the machinery for thrombin-catalyzed fibrin formation was presumably 'concocted by gene duplication and the shuffling about of key modular domains'.[adapted from article]

Talk Origins Evolving Immunity . Evolution of the Immune System, Spring 2005 .

Sequence comparisons of the three homologous polypeptide chains that compose vertebrate fibrinogens (acute phase proteins) imply that the molecule evolved before the divergence of vertebrates and invertebrates. Computer comparisons of various fibrinogen-related sequences indicate that the sea cucumber proteins diverged before the beta-gamma gene duplication.
Presence of a vertebrate fibrinogen-like sequence in an echinoderm. [Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1990]

Coelomocytes increased expression of ferritin mRNA after stimulation. In vertebrates, cytokines can cause changes in iron levels in macrophages. Similarly, echinoderm macrokines produced decreases in iron levels in coelomocyte supernatant fluids. These results suggest that echinoderm ferritin is an acute phase protein and suggest that sequestration of iron is an ancient host defense response in animals.
Evolution of the acute phase response: iron release by echinoderm (Asterias forbesi) coelomocytes, and cloning of an echinoderm ferritin molecule.[Dev Comp Immunol. 2002 Jan;26(1):11-26.]

tags [Immunology] [evolution] [immune system] [coagulation cascade] ["irreducible complexity"]