Is the membrane attack complex of complement an enzyme?

✍ Scribed by Michael D. P. Boyle

• Book ID: 104678081
• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1984
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 854 KB
• Volume: 61
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0300-8177
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00239603

✦ Synopsis

Recent studies on the functional activities of the membrane attack complex of complement, C5b-9, are reviewed. A new speculative hypothesis has been advanced to account for the ability of complement to mediate lysis of various targets. This hypothesis has three major elements: 1) that the membrane attack complex is an enzyme; 2) that the substrate for this putative enzyme is a membrane constituent; 3) that the substrate specificity of the putative enzyme is dependent on the species source of individual complement components within the C5b-9 complex.