Filarial parasites modulate effective immune response of their host by releasing a variety of immunomodulatory molecules, which help in the long persistence of the parasite within the host. The present study was aimed to characterize an immunomodulatory protein of Brugia malayi and its interaction with the host immune component at the structural and functional level. Our findings showed that Br...

Complement C1q is a hexameric molecule assembled from 18 polypeptide chains of three different types encoded by three genes. This versatile recognition protein senses a wide variety of immune and nonimmune ligands, including pathogens and altered self components, and triggers the classical complement pathway through activation of its associated proteases C1r and C1s. We report a method for expr...

Complete selective deficiencies of the complement component C1q are rare genetic disorders which are associated with recurrent infections and a high prevalence of lupus erythematosus-like symptoms. The improvements in molecular biology techniques have facilitated the analysis of such genetic defects to a great extend. To date the basis of C1q deficiencies from 13 families have been studied at t...

Although very similar in sequence, the four subclasses of human immunoglobulin G (IgG) differ markedly in their ability to activate complement. Glu318-Lys320-Lys322 has been identified as a key binding motif for the first component of complement, C1q, and is present in all isotypes of Ig capable of activating complement. This motif, however, is present in all subclasses of human IgG, including ...

Patients presenting with nephrotic syndrome with or without nephritic illness rarely come across with the diagnosis of 'C1q nephropathy'. This entity is purely diagnosed with the help of immunofluorescence like IgA nephropathy. Clinical presentation is heterogenous, ranging from nephrotic range proteinuria to sub-nephrotic state; and with or without hematuria / renal insufficiency. Similarly, t...

BACKGROUND Solid-phase assays to distinguish complement binding from noncomplement binding HLA-specific antibodies have been introduced, but technical limitations may compromise their interpretation. We have examined the extent to which C1q-binding to HLA-class I single-antigen beads (SAB) is influenced by denatured HLA on SAB, antibody titre, and complement interference that causes a misleadin...

The virulence mechanism of Neisseria gonorrhoeae in pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) is not well understood, and an objective diagnostic method to identify patients with PID is lacking. We investigated the hypothesis that development of PID was associated with a C1q-dependent virulence property of gonococcal strains. Recent development of a C1q-dependent experimental model of gonococcal infect...

PURPOSE Complement has been implicated in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether complement activation is part of the pathogenesis of retinal ganglion cell (RGC) loss in glaucoma. METHODS mRNA and protein was extracted from the retina and brain of DBA/2 and C57/BL6 mice and subjected to RT-PCR and immunoblot analysis, respectively....

The ability of circulating blood monocytes to express C1q receptors (cC1qR and gC1qR) as well as to synthesize and secrete the classical pathway proteins C1q, C1r, and C1s and their regulator, C1-INH is very well established. What is intriguing, however, is that, in addition to secretion of the individual C1 proteins monocytes are also able to display macromolecular C1 on their surface in a man...

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a heterogeneous multifactorial systemic autoimmune disease affecting several organs. SLE can start relatively early in life and results in impaired quality of life and shortened life expectancy because of a gradual disease progression leading to cardiovascular, renal and neoplastic disease. The basic mechanisms of the pathogenesis of the disease still remai...