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Nature Medicine 7, 1285 - 1286 (2001)
doi:10.1038/nm1201-1285
Annihilating host defense
Michael M. Frank1
- Department of Pediatrics Duke Medical Center and Children's Health Center Durham, North Carolina, USA
e-mail: frank007@mc.duke.edu
Abstract
Over time, bacteria have evolved mechanisms to enable them to outwit the efforts of their host to destroy them. New studies have uncovered a hitherto unknown mechanism of defense used by one of the commonest bacteria to infect humans, and a major pathogen, group A Streptococcus (pages 1298–1305)
Host immunity involves a multilayered defense against bacterial attack. An essential element in this defense is provided by the proteins of the complement system—a group of blood-borne proteins that are a key component of innate immunity and are involved in the lysis and phagocytosis of foreign cells.
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