Viral complement regulatory proteins

The inactivation of complement provides cells and tissues critical protection from complement-mediated attack and decreases the associated recruitment of other inflammatory mediators. In an attempt to evade the host immune response, viruses have evolved two mechanisms to acquire complement regulatory proteins. They can directly seize the host cell complement regulators onto their outer envelope and/or they can produce their own proteins which are either secreted into the neighboring intercellular space or expressed as membrane-bound proteins on the infected host cell. The following review will concentrate on the viral homologues of the mammalian complement regulatory proteins, specifically those containing complement control protein (CCP) repeats.