Frontiers | C-Reactive Protein and Cancer: Interpreting the Differential Bioactivities of Its Pentameric and Monomeric, Modified Isoforms

IntroductionC-reactive protein (CRP) is an evolutionarily conserved multimeric protein of innate immunity. In humans, its blood levels change acutely and quantitatively in response to the severity of tissue damage and the inflammatory response that ensues. The immediate, natural response to tissue damage is referred to as the acute phase response (APR) which is a natural biochemical, physiological, and immunological reaction to the tissue insult. The APR is an amnestic response with the multifaceted purpose of controlling vascular damage, accessing, accumulating, and amplifying host humoral and cellular defenses, controlling any pathology associated with the introduction of the thereat, removing debris and stimulating tissue repair mechanisms to reestablish healthy tissue homeostasis. These processes can also stimulate adaptive immune responses which can confer longer term immunological memory (1, 2).CRP is widely called the prototypic acute phase reactant. As a protein of innate immun...