Nya roller av komplementsystemet i infektioner och immunreglering

Bacterial infections are a significant global health problem aggravated by increasing antibiotic resistance.

To develop new vaccines and treatments we must understand in detail how our immune system works and how it is manipulated by pathogenic bacteria.

The complement system, a central part of innate immunity, is a particular focus of evasion strategies developed by pathogenic bacteria to survive and invade the host.

The goal of this project is to define novel functions of complement and how bacteria such as particularly antibiotic resistant Acinetobacter evade and counterct the complement attack.

We propose that C3, evolutionary oldest complement protein, is not only extracellular opsonin but that it is also present in cytosol contributing to cell-autonomous immunity.

We will study how cytosolic C3 contributes to recognition and killing of invasive bacterial pathogens and how it regulates ensuing cytokine responses.

Further, we will investigate how complement inhibitor factor H regulates adaptive immune responses, in particular those elicited by T regulatory cells, which may be relevant not only in infections but also in glioma development during which expression of factor H is observed.

Our project will contribute novel, basic concepts relevant to infectious diseases and immune regulation, which underly many diseases and will be useful in designing novel therapies.