Comparison of soluble decoy IgG fusion proteins of BAFF-R and BCMA as antagonists for BAFF.

BAFF is considered a therapeutic target because dysregulated production of BAFF can induce systemic lupus erythematosus-like phenotype in mice, and elevated levels of BAFF are associated with disease severity in systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis patients. Fc fusion decoy receptors, BCMA-Fc and BAFF-R-Fc, are therapeutic candidates for blocking BAFF. While studying their interactions with BAFF, we found that BAFF-R-Fc is more effective than BCMA-Fc for blocking BAFF binding to its receptors.

Identification of a new murine tumor necrosis factor receptor locus that contains two novel murine receptors for tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL).

Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) ligand and receptor superfamily members play critical roles in diverse developmental and pathological settings. In search for novel TNF superfamily members, we identified a murine chromosomal locus that contains three new TNF receptor-related genes. Sequence alignments suggest that the ligand binding regions of these murine TNF receptor homologues, mTNFRH1, -2 and -3, are most homologous to those of the tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) receptors.