Figure 6. SMSs inhibit the classical, lectin and alternative pathway.

Complement deposition assays were performed on microtiter plates coated with aggregated IgG (classical pathway), mannan (lectin pathway) and zymosan (alternative pathway) in presence or absence of scabies mite serpins, respectively. Shown are means ± SEM of n = 4 independent experiments, each performed in duplicate. The three pathways were measured using 1% (CP), 2% (LP) and 4% (AP) NHS. Assays were performed at inhibitor protein concentrations of 25–400 µg/ml (0.5–8.6 µM) for SMSB3/wt and SMSB3/B and 10–200 µg/ml (0.2–3.7 µM) for SMSB4/wt. Significant differences between wild type SMSB3 and the hinge mutant SMSB3/B (*; p<0.05).