Metals: Calprotectin and iron match up
September 17th, 2015 by Guenter Weiss
Nature Chemical Biology 11, 756 (2015). doi:10.1038/nchembio.1915
Author: Guenter Weiss
Iron availability plays a decisive role in host-pathogen interaction, and limitation of iron availability to microbes has been characterized as an effective host defense strategy. The identification of the iron-scavenging property of the neutrophil protein calprotectin adds an important new piece to this concept of nutritional immunity.