Isolation of three separate anaphylatoxins from complement-activated human serum

Summary

Recent methodologies used in preparing anaphylatoxins from complement-activated serum are described. Activation of the alternative pathway generates C3a and C5a; however, activation of the classical pathway is required to generate the anaphylatoxin from C4. This article describes an activation scheme that simultaneously generates all three of the anaphylatoxins (e.g., C3a, C4a and C5a) in human serum and outlines a procedure for isolating each as homogeneous products. Purification of intact anaphylatoxins directly from complement-activated serum takes place only if an exopeptidase in serum, known as carboxypeptidase N (SCPN), is properly inhibited. A new series of mercapto derivatives of arginine analogs are introduced as potent and effective inhibitors of SCPN. These inhibitors permit normal complement activation but prevent degradation of the released activation fragments C3a, C4a or C5a.

The SCPN inhibitor previously used was 6-aminohexanoic acid (EACA), but it required a 1 M concentration for effective inhibition, the substituted mercapto-guanido compounds prove to be effective in the mM range.