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Chain reaction in the human immune system trapped in crystals
Date:9/11/2012

4 protein and the C4MASP-2 complex. Two other PhD students, Sofia Sirotkina and Troels R. Kjaer, then performed laboratory experiments showing that the conclusions based on crystal structures were also valid when MASP-2 cleaved C4 in a test tube.

Potential impact on drug development

The results obtained by Rune T. Kidmose and Nick S. Laursen are remarkable. "It's extremely rare that you can trap a proteolytic (protein-degrading) enzyme in the middle of the process of cleaving an intact protein," says Associate Professor Gregers Rom Andersen, the students' supervisor. "We now know in detail which parts of MASP-2 recognise the substrate C4. Another fascinating aspect of their results is that we also know the structure of both C4 and MASP-2 alone, so we can see how both the enzyme and the substrate change their three-dimensional structure when C4 is recognised by MASP-2. We can also see how these changes directly contribute to facilitating the cleavage of C4," he concludes.

For Professor Thiel, the new results represent a completely new way to visualise how MASP-2 whose function he discovered in 1997 carries out its function. "It's also a great personal pleasure to be involved right from the discovery of a new protein to the point where you obtain knowledge at the atomic level on how this protein functions as an enzyme," he says.

In many situations, an undesirable activation of the complement system takes place, which can damage our own tissues. Several pharmaceutical companies are currently working on developing drugs that can attenuate such damage. "The very detailed understanding that we now have concerning parts of the complement system will undoubtedly lead to more intelligent ways of developing new drugs," says Professor Thiel. "Of course, we won't stop our studies here, as we'll continue the very detailed studies of other proteins and molecular mechanisms within the immune system," he continues.


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Contact: Gregers Rom Andersen
gra@mb.au.dk
45-87-15-55-07
Aarhus University
Source:Eurekalert  

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