Article
Author: Capparelli, Michael ; Duca, Jose ; Jendza, Keith ; Salcius, Michael ; Romanowski, Michael J ; Ferrara, Luciana ; Mogi, Muneto ; Kato, Mitsunori ; Mainolfi, Nello ; Be, Celine ; Tichkule, Ritesh ; Murphy, Jason ; De Erkenez, Andrea ; Horton, Patricia A ; Darsigny, Veronique ; Wiesmann, Christian ; Bolduc, Philippe ; Meredith, Erik ; Srinivas, Honnappa ; Namil, Abdel ; Heyder, Jessica ; Schirle, Markus ; Michaud, Gregory A ; Liu, Fang ; Nguyen, Anh ; Anderson, Karen ; McLaughlin, Doug
The complement pathway is an important part of the immune system, and uncontrolled activation is implicated in many diseases. The human complement component 5 protein (C5) is a validated drug target within the complement pathway, as an anti-C5 antibody (Soliris) is an approved therapy for paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria. Here, we report the identification, optimization and mechanism of action for the first small-molecule inhibitor of C5 complement protein.