Cascade Biotechnology INC | Complement Therapeutics; novel approach to CNS/PNS disease management using the innate complement system.
Complement System and Cancer
Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma (cSCC)
The complement system plays a key role in several dermatological diseases.
Overactivation, deficiency, or abnormality of the control proteins are often related to a skin disease.
Autoimmune mechanisms with autoantibodies and a cytotoxic effect of the complement membrane attack complex on epidermal or vascular cells can cause direct tissue damage and inflammation, e.g., in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), phospholipid antibody syndrome, and bullous skin diseases like pemphigoid.
By evading complement attack, some microbes like Borrelia spirochetes and staphylococci can persist in the skin and cause prolonged symptoms.
Drugs with free hydroxyl on amino groups (e.g., hydralazine, procainamide) could interact with C4A, C4B, or C3 and cause an SLE-like disease.
Complement has led to novel anti-complement drugs (recombinant C1-inhibitor and anti-C5 antibody, eculizumab) that could alleviate symptoms in diseases associated with excessive complement activation.
For reference: (Edimara S. Reis, Dimitrios C. Mastellos, Daniel Ricklin, Alberto Mantovani, and John D. Lambris (2018) Complement in cancer: untangling an intricate relationship Nat Rev Immunol. Jan; 18(1):5–18).
