Journal
ADVANCED DRUG DELIVERY REVIEWS
Volume 63, Issue 12, Pages 1008-1019Publisher
ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.addr.2011.05.023
Keywords
Immunology; Immunoglobulins; Nanoparticles; X-ray crystallography; Electron microscopy; Small-angle scattering; Atomic force microscopy
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The complement system constitutes an important barrier to infection of the human body. Over more than four decades structural properties of the proteins of the complement system have been investigated with X-ray crystallography, electron microscopy, small-angle scattering, and atomic force microscopy. Here, we review the accumulated evidence that the nm-scaled dimensions and conformational changes of these proteins support functions of the complement system with regard to tissue distribution, molecular crowding effects, avidity binding, and conformational regulation of complement activation. In the targeting of complement activation to the surfaces of nanoparticulate material, such as engineered nanoparticles or fragments of the microbial cell wall, these processes play intimately together. This way the complement system is an excellent example where nanoscience may serve to unravel the molecular biology of the immune response. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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