About the Authors

Cristiana C. Garcia

Affiliation Laboratório de Imunofarmacologia, Departamento de Bioquímica e Imunologia, ICB, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil

Wynne Weston-Davies

Affiliation Varleigh Ltd, London, United Kingdom

Remo C. Russo

Affiliations Laboratório de Imunofarmacologia, Departamento de Bioquímica e Imunologia, ICB, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, Departamento de Fisiologia e Biofísica, ICB, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil

Luciana P. Tavares

Affiliation Laboratório de Imunofarmacologia, Departamento de Bioquímica e Imunologia, ICB, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil

Milene A. Rachid

Affiliations Laboratório de Imunofarmacologia, Departamento de Bioquímica e Imunologia, ICB, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, Departamento de Patologia Geral, ICB, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil

José C. Alves-Filho

Affiliation Departamento de Farmacologia, Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil

Alexandre V. Machado

Affiliation Centro de Pesquisas René Rachou, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil

Bernhard Ryffel

Affiliation CNRS UMR7355, CNRS and University Orleans, France and IIDMM, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

Miles A. Nunn

Affiliation Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Wallingford, United Kingdom

Mauro M. Teixeira

mmtex@icb.ufmg.br

Affiliation Laboratório de Imunofarmacologia, Departamento de Bioquímica e Imunologia, ICB, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil

Competing Interests

The authors have the following interests. The author Dr. Wynne Weston-Davies is the Medical Director of Varleigh Ltd, the company that developed and supplied the C5a inhibitor, OmCI or coversin, used in this study. Co-authors Jose Carlos Alves-Filho and Bernhard Ryffel are PLOS ONE Editorial Board members. There are no further patents, products in development, or marketed products to declare. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: CCG WW RCR BR MN MMT. Performed the experiments: CCG RCR LPT MAR AVM JCAF. Analyzed the data: CCG RCR LPT MAR. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: WW AVM MN BR JCAF. Wrote the paper: CCG WW MN MMT.