The Complement System: Novel Roles in Health and Disease

The Complement System: Novel Roles in Health and Disease surveys the advances in basic and applied research on the complement system over the past few years. Complement is a major protein network in blood that has been traditionally conceived as part of the immune system, a proinflammatory cascade engaged in nonspecific antimicrobial defence. However, it became clear recently that this system also plays an essential role in specific, adaptive immune responses, as well as in many basic physiological processes including cardiovascular regulation, pregnancy and tissue regeneration, just to mention a few. Complement proteins are widely involved in the immune evasion tactics of infectious microbes and cancer cells, and derangement of complement function contributes to numerous autoimmune, allergic and acute catastrophic diseases. Because pharmacological manipulation of the complement system provides therapeutic benefit in many of these conditions, we may be very close to widespread clinical use of a new class of drugs influencing complement activation or action. In fact, complementology may be one of the most versatile and dynamic subdisciplines in medicine today. The 25 reviews of this volume, written by prominent experts, provide state-of-art insights into the various aspects of an amazing progress in this field.

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