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The goal of this study was to identify the site(s) in CR1 that mediate the dissociation of the C3 and C5 convertases. To that end, truncated derivatives of CR1 whose extracellular part is composed of 30 tandem repeating modules, termed complement control protein repeats (CCPs), were generated. Site 1 (CCPs 1-3) alone mediated the decay acceleration of the classical and alternative pathway C3 convertases. Site 2 (CCPs 8-10 or the nearly identical CCPs 15-17) had one-fifth the activity of site 1. In contrast, for the C5 convertase, site 1 had only 0.5% of the decay accelerating activity, while site 2 had no detectable activity. Efficient C5 decay accelerating activity was detected in recombinants that carried both site 1 and site 2. The activity was reduced if the intervening repeats between site 1 and site 2 were deleted. The results indicate that, for the C5 convertases, decay accelerating activity is mediated primarily by site 1. A properly spaced site 2 has an important auxiliary role, which may involve its C3b binding capacity. Moreover, using homologous substitution mutagenesis, residues important in site 1 for dissociating activity were identified. Based on these results, we generated proteins one-fourth the size of CR1 but with enhanced decay accelerating activity for the C3 convertases.

Human factor B is required for the initiation and propagation of the complement alternative pathway. It also participates in the amplification of the complement classical pathway. Alone, factor B is a zymogen with little known biochemical activity, but in the context of the alternative pathway convertases, the factor B serine protease is activated in a process that first involves the association with C3b and subsequently the cleavage of factor B into two fragments, Ba and Bb. Ba, the NH2-terminal fragment, is composed mainly of three tandem short consensus repeats, globular domains found in other complement proteins. It dissociates from the convertase during assembly, leaving the active C3 convertase, C3bBb. Previous reports suggest that the Ba region may be instrumental in convertase assembly. This hypothesis was tested using site-directed mutagenesis of recombinant factor B and monoclonal antibody epitope mapping to evaluate the relative importance of specific short consensus repeat amino acid residues. Three sites of interest were identified. Site 1 is a stretch of 19 contiguous amino acids in short consensus repeat 1 that form the epitope of a monoclonal antibody that effectively blocks factor B function. Site 2, composed of 6 contiguous amino acids in short consensus repeat 2, and site 3, consisting of 7 contiguous amino acids in short consensus repeat 3, were defined by mutations that reduce factor B hemolytic activity to 3% or less. Further analyses indicated that sites 2 and 3 contribute to factor B-C3b interactions.

Factor B and C2 are serine proteases that carry the catalytic sites of the complement C3 and C5 convertases. Their protease domains are activated by conformational changes that occur during convertase assembly and are deactivated upon convertase dissociation. Factor B and C2 share an 8-amino acid conserved sequence near their serine protease termini that is not seen in other serine proteases. To determine its importance, 24 factor B mutants were generated, each with a single amino acid substitution in this region. Whereas most mutants were functionally neutral, all five different substitutions of aspartic acid 715 and one phenylalanine 716 substitution severely reduced hemolytic activity. Several aspartic acid 715 mutants permitted the steps of convertase assembly including C3b-dependent factor D-mediated cleavage and activation of the high affinity C3b-binding site, but the resulting complexes did not cleave C3. Given that factor B and C2 share the same biological substrates and that part of the trypsin-like substrate specificity region is not apparent in either protein, we propose that the conserved region plays a critical role in the conformational regulation of the catalytic site and could offer a highly specific target for the therapeutic inhibition of complement.

The first step in the replication cycle of the single-stranded DNA phages is the conversion of the infecting positive strand circle to a duplex ring. This event involves the de novo initiation of a negative strand, using the infecting positive strand cycle as a template. The synthesis of the negative strand is in many respects analogous to the formation of a fragment during cellular DNA replication. In this paper we describe the initiation of the negative strand of bacteriophage G4. The data establish that, in vivo, the synthesis of the G4 negative strand is initiated at a specific site, which we have mapped on the 5400-base viral chromosome.

Cysteine-rich repeated units of 40-70 amino acids are building blocks of many mammalian proteins, including 12 proteins of the complement system. Human complement arranged motifs, designated short consensus repeats (SCRs), which constitute the entire extracellular portion of this protein. Klickstein et al. [Klickstein, L. B., Bartow, T. J., Miletic, V., Rabson, L. D., Smith, J. A. & Fearon, D. T. (1988) J. Exp. Med. 168, 1699-1717 (abstr.)] localized a C4b binding domain to SCR-1 and/or SCR-2 and a C3b binding domain to SCR-8 and/or SCR-9. These SCRs bind different ligands, although SCR-1 and SCR-8 are 55% homologous and SCR-2 and SCR-9 are 70% homologous. To examine if one or two SCRs are required for ligand binding and to define sites within the SCRs that determine specificity of binding, mutagenesis analysis of a truncated, secreted form of CR1, called CR1-4 by Hourcade et al. [Hourcade, D., Meisner, D. R., Atkinson, J. P. & Holers, V. M. (1988) J. Exp. Med. 168, 1255-1270], was undertaken. The latter, composed of the first eight and one-half amino-terminal SCRs of CR1, efficiently bound C4b but not iC3. SCR-1 and SCR-2 were necessary for this interaction. Analysis of the mutant CR1-4 proteins, in which amino acids in SCR-1 and SCR-2 were substituted a few at a time with the homologous amino acids of SCR-8 and SCR-9, led to the identification of one amino acid in SCR-1 and three amino acids in SCR-2 important for C4b binding. Furthermore, five amino acids at the end of SCR-9, if placed in the homologous positions of SCR-2, conferred iC3 binding and are likely essential for ligand binding activity of SCR-8 and SCR-9. This iC3 binding occurred only if SCR-1 was present, indicating that two contiguous SCRs are necessary for this interaction. These results provide identification of amino acids within SCRs that are important for ligand binding.

Normal host cells are protected from the destructive action of complement by cell surface complement regulatory proteins. In humans, decay-accelerating factor (DAF) and membrane cofactor protein (MCP) play such a biologic role by inhibiting C3 and C5 convertases. DAF and MCP accomplish this task by specific mechanisms designated decay-accelerating activity and factor I cofactor activity, respectively. In other species, including mice, structural and/or functional homologues of these proteins are not yet well characterized. Previous studies have shown that the mouse protein Crry/p65 has certain characteristics of self-protecting complement regulatory proteins. For example, Crry/p65 is expressed on a wide variety of murine cells, and when expressed on human K562 erythroleukemic cells, it prevents deposition of mouse C3 fragments on the cell surface during activation of either the classical or alternative complement pathway. We have now studied factor I cofactor and decay-accelerating activities of Crry/p65. Recombinant Crry/p65 demonstrates cofactor activity for factor I-mediated cleavage of both mouse C3b and C4b. Surprisingly, Crry/p65 also exhibits decay-accelerating activity for the classical pathway C3 convertase strongly and for the alternative pathway C3 convertase weakly. Therefore, mouse Crry/p65 uses the specific mechanisms of both human MCP and DAF. Although Crry/p65, like MCP and DAF, contains tandem short consensus repeats (SCR) characteristic of C3/C4 binding proteins, Crry/p65 is not considered to be a genetic homologue of either MCP or DAF. Thus, Crry/p65 is an example of evolutionary conservation of two specific activities in a single unique protein in one species that are dispersed to individual proteins in another. We propose that the repeating SCR motif in this family has allowed this unusual process of evolution to occur, perhaps driven by the use of MCP and DAF as receptors by human pathogens such as the measles virus.

The human C3b/C4b receptor or complement receptor type one (CR1) is an approximately 200-kD single chain membrane glycoprotein of human peripheral blood cells that mediates the binding, processing, and transport of C3b-bearing immune complexes and regulates the activity of the complement cascade. Analysis of partial cDNA clones has shown that the COOH terminus is composed predominantly of three tandemly repeated regions of 450 amino acids each (15). In this report, we present a cDNA sequence that encodes the NH2 terminus of CR1. It appears to have been derived from an alternatively processed transcript, caused by polyadenylation occurring at a site within an intron in the CR1 transcriptional unit. The resulting truncated messenger carries an open reading frame that would produce a short, secreted CR1 form. We present genomic sequences and Northern blots which support this hypothesis and we propose that the NH2-terminal end of CR1 is a likely location for active sites. In addition, we report evidence for a CR1-like sequence in the human genome and we present a model for the organization of CR1.

Mouse cells expressing the human complement regulatory proteins decay accelerating factor (DAF) or membrane cofactor protein (MCP) were produced both by hybridoma technology and by transfection with the appropriate cDNAs. The expression of either or both of these products protected the mouse cell from lysis by human (though not rabbit) complement in the presence of naturally occurring human anti‐mouse antibody. This effect could be abrogated by the addition of monoclonal antibody against DAF or MCP. These data suggested that the production of animals transgenic for human complement regulatory proteins should in principle be similarly protected from hyperacute xenograft rejection.