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Physiopathological Implication of Genetic Variability
in the Complement Alternative Pathway.
My name is Santiago Rodriguez de Cordoba,
and I work at the Centro de Investigaciones
Biologicas in Madrid, Spain.
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My disclosures are that I had been receiving fees from
Alexion Pharmaceuticals for participation in advisory boards,
expert meetings and teaching courses.
I'm also a founder-member and shareholder of Secugen S.L.
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Complement is a crucial element of our innate immunity to fight infection.
It has an intrinsic ability to sense and react to pathogens.
But complement not only serve to eliminate pathogens,
also contribute to other physiological surveillance functions.
The most well known perhaps is clearance of Cellular debris and immune complexes.
But also participate in several other activities like tissue repair,
CNS development, and adaptive immune responses of lipid metabolism.
It is very important to realize that Complement is a double-edged sword.
Despite it's carefully controlled under normal circumstances to prevent host cell damage,
these regulatory mechanisms sometime become overwhelmed or misled,
and result in a number of serious conditions.
In this presentation, I will address the issue of complement genetic variability and
how that influences complement activity and regulation causing disease.
