Alpha2-macroglobulin: an evolutionarily conserved arm of the innate immune system

All animals and plants have immune systems that protect them from the diversity of pathogens that would otherwise threaten their survival. The different components of the immune system may inactivate the pathogens themselves or promote the inactivation and clearance of toxic products produced by the pathogens. An important category of virulence factors of bacterial and prokaryotic pathogens are the proteases, which act to facilitate the invasion of the pathogens and to promote their destructive growth in the host organism. The present review concentrates on the comparative biology of an evolutionarily conserved arm of the immune system, the protein, alpha2-macroglobulin. alpha2-Macroglobulin is an abundant protein of the plasma of vertebrates and members of several invertebrate phyla and functions as a broad-spectrum protease-binding protein. Protease-conjugated alpha2-macroglobulin is selectively bound by cells contacting the body fluids and alpha2-macroglobulin and its protease cargo are then internalized and degraded in secondary lysosomes of those cells. In addition to this function as an agent for protease clearance, alpha2-macroglobulin binds a variety of other ligands, including several peptide growth factors and modulates the activity of a lectin-dependent cytolytic pathway in arthropods.