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Unlocking the complement-suppressing potential of factor H with a bacterial polypeptide

Reference	BB/L024403/1
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Paul Barlow
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	University of Edinburgh
Department	Sch of Chemistry
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	172,807
Status	Completed
Type	Research Grant
Start date	01/04/2014
End date	31/03/2015
Duration	12 months

Abstract

unavailable

Summary

A challenge in medicine is that contact between blood and manmade devices (such as intra-vascular stents used in cardiac surgery or dialysis equipment for kidney-failure patients) can trigger part of the human immune system called the complement cascade, with dire clinical consequences. We discovered that PspCN, a polypeptide of microbial origin, "turbocharges" a human protein (CFH) that inhibits the complement cascade. Guided by the results of a market assessment, we now propose to design, manufacture and test PspCN-decorated surface coatings for medical implants. We aim to demonstrate that the PspCN displayed on these potentially protective coatings will grab hold of CFH, which is abundant in blood, and induce the captured CFH to switch from a latent to an activated form. Thus, in an improvement on the efforts of competitors to utilize CFH in its latent form, our approach will afford coated surfaces that are protected from the complement cascade by the patient's own, activated, CFH.

Committee	Not funded via Committee
Research Topics	Microbiology, Pharmaceuticals
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	Follow-On Fund (FOF) [2004-2015]
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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