Article #9
Clinical Indicator of Infection, Human
C-Reactive Protein (hCRP), and It’s
Role in Immune System;
A Structural Bioinformatics Study on
Binding Interactions of hCRP
Clinical Indicator of
Infection, Human
C-Reactive Protein
(hCRP), and It’s Role
in Immune System; A
Structural Bioinforma-
tics Study on Binding
Interactions of hCRP
Abstract
Human C-Reactive Protein is a protein that is synthesised in
the liver in response to infection and inflammation. Clinically
it is used as an indicator of infection and it is thought to be
a predictor of cardiovascular diseases. Structurally, human
C-Reactive protein is made up of 5 sub-units and it is known to
have binding interactions with Calcium, C-Polysaccharide, and
C1q of innate immune system. Bioinformatic investigation of the
protein, focused on these binding interactions through its amino
acid sequences in order to gain a better structural understanding
of the human C-Reactive protein and its role in the human
body. The study was carried out alongside the independent
undergraduate research project of Natural Sciences course which
involved crystallisation of human C-Reactive protein for further
crystallography studies.
Author:
Soner Tehelcioglu
Keywords: Escape
Room, Library Induc-
tion, Gamification, Ga-
mified Learning
Keywords: Human C-Reactive Protein, CRP, CWPS,
C-Polysaccharide
Introduction
C-Reactive Protein (CRP) is an essential part of the immune
system in humans as well as it is in many other species from
vertebrates to invertebrates. CRP activates the complement
system, which is a part of the innate immune system. After skin,
which is a physical barrier, innate immune system is the second
defence mechanism of vertebrates (Delves et al., 2017). It works
by responding to anything that is considered alien to the body
by the immune system (ibid). Therefore, by various binding
interactions that was investigated in this study CRP triggers a
cascade of events that activates the complement system via the
classical pathway. In the classical pathway, normally a molecule
called C1q binds to antigen-antibody complex and the cascade of
events leads to complement activation (Golub, 1987). However,
when CRP is involved, CRP binds to c-polysaccharide (CWPS) that
is found on the cell wall of bacteria. CRP-CWPS complex then
proceeds to bind to C1q, activating the same cascade of events of
classical pathway, activating the complement system (Agrawal et
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