TY - JOUR
T1 - The mannose-binding lectin
T2 - A prototypic pattern recognition molecule
AU - Takahashi, Kazue
AU - Ip, W. K.Eddie
AU - Michelow, Ian C.
AU - Ezekowitz, R. Alan B.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors wish to thank members of Laboratory of Developmental Immunology for their helpful comments. Furthermore, we were unable to cover the entire field in this review and so we acknowledge the work that we had to omit. This work was supported by grants from National Institute of Health to RABE. Conflict of interest: RABE is on the Board of and has a financial interest in Natimmune, a privately held biotechnology company that plans to explore the therapeutic potential of MBL.
PY - 2006/2
Y1 - 2006/2
N2 - The innate immune system is comprised of a sophisticated network of recognition and effector molecules that act together to protect the host in the first minutes or hours of exposure to an infectious challenge. The mannose-binding lectin (MBL) is an evolutionary conserved circulating host defense protein that acts as a broad-spectrum recognition molecule against a wide variety of infectious agents. Target binding triggers the MBL pathway of complement activation. MBL can be considered conceptually as an 'ante-antibody' because it has a role in mammals during the lag period that is required to develop an antibody response against infectious agents. Additionally, there are MBL-like homologues in animals that lack adaptive immunity that activate a primitive complement system, and under these circumstances these MBL-like molecules play an analogous role to antibodies in higher animals. These molecules might be considered to be functional antecedents of antibodies. Recent work also indicates that MBL recognizes altered self-antigens, and as such MBL has a role that extends beyond a traditional role in first line host defense as it appears to play a role as a modulator of inflammation.
AB - The innate immune system is comprised of a sophisticated network of recognition and effector molecules that act together to protect the host in the first minutes or hours of exposure to an infectious challenge. The mannose-binding lectin (MBL) is an evolutionary conserved circulating host defense protein that acts as a broad-spectrum recognition molecule against a wide variety of infectious agents. Target binding triggers the MBL pathway of complement activation. MBL can be considered conceptually as an 'ante-antibody' because it has a role in mammals during the lag period that is required to develop an antibody response against infectious agents. Additionally, there are MBL-like homologues in animals that lack adaptive immunity that activate a primitive complement system, and under these circumstances these MBL-like molecules play an analogous role to antibodies in higher animals. These molecules might be considered to be functional antecedents of antibodies. Recent work also indicates that MBL recognizes altered self-antigens, and as such MBL has a role that extends beyond a traditional role in first line host defense as it appears to play a role as a modulator of inflammation.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.coi.2005.11.014
DO - 10.1016/j.coi.2005.11.014
M3 - Review article
C2 - 16368230
AN - SCOPUS:30044433696
SN - 0952-7915
VL - 18
SP - 16
EP - 23
JO - Current Opinion in Immunology
JF - Current Opinion in Immunology
IS - 1
ER -