0000000000654461
AUTHOR
Axel Wollmer
A bioactive designer cytokine for human hematopoietic progenitor cell expansion
Efficient expansion of hematopoietic progenitor cells requires, at least, the simultaneous stimulation of the receptors c-kit and gp130. While c-kit is activated by SCF; gp130, in cells which do not express sufficient amounts of IL-6R, can be activated by the complex of soluble IL-6R (sIL-6R) and IL-6. The therapeutic use of IL-6/sIL-6R, however, has been hampered by the high concentrations of the sIL-6R protein required. We have designed a fusion protein of sIL-6R and IL-6, linked by a flexible peptide chain, that was expressed to high levels. On gp130 expressing cells the fusion protein turned out to be fully active at 100 to 1,000-fold lower concentration than the combination of unlinked…
The family of the IL-6-type cytokines: specificity and promiscuity of the receptor complexes.
The cytokines IL-6, LIF, CNTF, OSM, IL-11, and CT-1 have been grouped into the family of IL-6-type cytokines, since they all require gp130 for signal transduction. Interestingly, gp130 binds directly to OSM, whereas complex formation with the other cytokines depends on additional receptor subunits. Only limited structural information on these cytokines and their receptors is available. X-ray structures have been solved for the cytokines LIF and CNTF, whose up-up-down-down four-helix bundle is common to all of these cytokines, and for the receptors of hGH and prolactin, which contain two domains with a fibronectin III-like fold. Since cocrystallization and x-ray analysis of the up to four di…
Combining two mutations of human interleukin-6 that affect gp130 activation results in a potent interleukin-6 receptor antagonist on human myeloma cells.
The pleiotropic cytokine interleukin-6 (IL-6) interacts with the specific ligand binding subunit (IL-6R alpha) of the IL-6 receptor, and this complex associates with the signal-transducing subunit gp130 (IL-6R beta). Human IL-6 acts on human and murine cells, whereas murine IL-6 is only active on murine cells. The construction of a set of chimeric human/murine IL-6 proteins has recently allowed us to define a region (residues 43-55) within the human IL-6 protein, which is important for the interaction with gp130. Subdividing this region shows that mainly residues 50-55 of the human IL-6 are necessary for this interaction. Recently, another human IL-6 double mutant (Q159E and T162P) showed r…
Participation of Two Ser-Ser-Phe-Tyr Repeats in Interleukin-6 (IL-6)-Binding Sites of the Human IL-6 Receptor
The alpha-subunit of interleukin-6 (IL-6) receptor is a member of the hematopoietin receptor family. The alignment of its amino acid sequence with those of other members of this family (human somatotropin receptor/murine IL-3 receptor beta and human IL-2 receptor beta) has suggested that amino acids included in two SSFY repeats found in each of its hematopoietin receptor domains, contribute to the binding of the ligand. The involvement of these amino acids in IL-6 binding and signal transduction was studied by site-directed mutagenesis and molecular modelling. We present a computer-derived three-dimensional model of the IL-6/IL-6 receptor complex based on the structure of the human somatotr…
The membrane proximal cytokine receptor domain of the human interleukin-6 receptor is sufficient for ligand binding but not for gp130 association.
Interleukin-6 (IL-6) belongs to the family of the "four-helix bundle" cytokines. The extracellular parts of their receptors consist of several Ig- and fibronectin type III-like domains. Characteristic of these receptors is a cytokine-binding module consisting of two such fibronectin domains defined by a set of four conserved cysteines and a tryptophan-serine-X-tryptophan-serine (WSXWS) sequence motif. On target cells, IL-6 binds to a specific IL-6 receptor (IL-6R), and the complex of IL-6.IL-6R associates with the signal transducing protein gp130. The IL-6R consists of three extracellular domains. The NH2-terminal Ig-like domain is not needed for ligand binding and signal initiation. Here w…