Complement Attack against Aspergillus and Corresponding Evasion Mechanisms

Table 1

Overview on how Aspergillus copes with the complement system.

Mode of action	Reference	Effects
Hiding	[69]	Fungal abscess forms a shield that protects against complement attack by inhibiting diffusion of complement factors to the hyphae
Masking	[10, 11]	Fungal surface compounds (pigments) avoid recognition by complement factors and reduce deposition of C3 on conidia
Acquisition of complement inhibitors	[70, 71]	Host-derived FH, FHL-1, FHR-1, and C4bp are bound on the fungal surface and downmodulate complement activation
Production of complement inhibitors	[69, 72, 73]	Synthesis of a fungal complement inhibitor (CI) that interferes with the complement cascade
Proteolytic degradation of complement proteins	[15, 17, 47, 74]	Fungal protease(s) degrade(s) complement proteins, thus avoiding formation of antimicrobial effector molecules