Simons, JP;
Loeffler, JM;
Al-Shawi, R;
Ellmerich, S;
Hutchinson, WL;
Tennent, GA;
Petrie, A;
... Pepys, MB; + view all
(2014)
C-reactive protein is essential for innate resistance to pneumococcal infection.
Immunology
, 142
(3)
pp. 414-420.
10.1111/imm.12266.
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Abstract
No deficiency of human C-reactive protein (CRP), or even structural polymorphism of the protein, has yet been reported and its physiological role is thus not known. Here we show for the first time that CRP deficient mice are remarkably susceptible to Streptococcus pneumoniae infection and are protected by reconstitution with isolated pure human CRP, or by anti-pneumococcal antibodies. Autologous mouse CRP is evidently essential for innate resistance to pneumococcal infection before antibodies are produced. Our findings are consistent with the significant association between clinical pneumococcal infection and non-coding human CRP gene polymorphisms which affect CRP expression. Deficiency or loss of function variation in CRP may thus be lethal at the first early life encounter with this ubiquitous virulent pathogen, explaining the invariant presence and structure of CRP in human adults. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | C-reactive protein is essential for innate resistance to pneumococcal infection. |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1111/imm.12266 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/imm.12266 |
| Additional information: | © 2014 The Authors. Immunology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Keywords: | C-reactive protein, anti-nuclear antibodies, host resistance, mouse knockout, pneumococcal infection |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Div of Medicine UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Div of Medicine > Inflammation UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Eastman Dental Institute |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1425759 |
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