Soluble complement receptor type 1 (sCR1) is a powerful inhibitor of complement activation. Because of this ability, sCR1 may prove to be an important therapeutic agent that can be used to block the immunopathologic effects of uncontrolled complement activation in a variety of clinically significant disorders. Although several previous studies have examined the ability of sCR1 to inhibit complemented-mediated immunopathologic damage, there is no information on its ability to interfere with the host's defense against infection. In the current experiments sCR1 exerted a concentration-dependent inhibitory effect on the phagocytosis of Streptococcus pneumoniae by human polymorphonuclear leukocytes in vitro. Not only di sCR1 inhibit complement-dependent opsonization of the pneumococcus but at higher concentrations it also inhibited the ingestion of bacteria which had been previously opsonized. Furthermore, when rats were injected with sCR1, it inhibited both their serum hemolytic activity and serum opsonic activity in a dose-dependent fashion. Finally, for rats treated with sCR1, the 50% lethal dose was S. pneumoniae and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. These data demonstrate that sCR1 significantly inhibits complement-mediated host against bacterial infection.