Table 1.

Examples of complement evasion proteins and their targets on host cells^*

Complement evasion protein	Host target
Antibody depletion
Staphylococcal protein A (SpA)	IgG
Complement inhibition
Extracellular fibrinogen-binding protein (Efb)	C3 and C3b-containing convertases
Staphylococcal superantigen-like protein-7 (SSL-7)	C5
Staphylococcus complement inhibitor (SCIN)	C3 convertases
Complement C2 receptor trispanning protein (CRIT)	C2
Chemotaxis inhibitory protein of Staphylococcus aureus (CHIPS)	C5a receptor (C5aR)
Regulators of complement activation (RCA) recruitment
Complement-regulator-acquiring protein (CRASP)	Factor H, factor H-like protein-1 (FHL-1) and C4-binding protein (C4BP)
M protein family	Factor H, FHL-1 and C4BP
RCA mimicry
Variola virus complement-control protein (VCP)	C3b and C3 convertases
Smallpox protein of complement enzymes (SPICE)	C3b and C3 convertases
Proteolytic degradation
Staphylokinase	C3b and IgG (by activation of plasmin)
Pseudomonas elastase (PaE)	C3
56 kDa protease	C5a

^*See Supplementary information S1 (table) for an extended list of microbial evasion proteins.