The single mutation Phe173 --> Ala induces a molten globule-like state in murine interleukin-6.

A series of three aromatic to alanine mutants of recombinant murine interleukin-6 lacking the 22 N-terminal residues (DeltaN22mIL-6) were constructed to investigate the role of these residues in the structure and function of mIL-6. While Y78A and Y97A have activities similar to that of DeltaN22mIL-6, F173A lacks biological activity. F173A retains high levels of secondary structure, as determined by far-UV circular dichroism (CD), but has substantially reduced levels of tertiary structure, as determined by near-UV CD and (1)H NMR spectroscopy.

Disulfide bond structure and N-glycosylation sites of the extracellular domain of the human interleukin-6 receptor.

The high affinity interleukin-6 (IL-6) receptor is a hexameric complex consisting of two molecules each of IL-6, IL-6 receptor (IL-6R), and the high affinity converter and signaling molecule, gp130. The extracellular "soluble" part of the IL-6R (sIL-6R) consists of three domains: an amino-terminal Ig-like domain and two fibronectin-type III (FN III) domains. The two FN III domains comprise the cytokine-binding domain defined by a set of 4 conserved cysteine residues and a WSXWS sequence motif.

The immunoglobulin-like module of gp130 is required for signaling by interleukin-6, but not by leukemia inhibitory factor.

The transmembrane protein gp130 is a shared component of the receptor complexes for the interleukin-6 (IL-6)-type cytokines, which include IL-6, leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) and oncostatin M (OSM). In addition to its role in the generation of high affinity receptors, gp130 is required for signal transduction by these cytokines. In the present study we have examined the role of the N-terminal located, extracellular immunoglobulin (Ig)-like module of gp130 in signal transduction by IL-6 and LIF.

Immunotherapy of melanoma: targeting defined antigens.

The clinical experience that spontaneous anti-melanoma immune reactivity can occur has stimulated the search for methods to induce this in patients diagnosed with melanoma. Non-specific approaches using a variety of immune stimulants such as BCG or cytokines have met with limited success, as have vaccines derived from tumour cells. More recently, melanoma antigens have been identified that can act as specific targets for immune recognition.

Neutralizing and nonneutralizing monoclonal antibodies to the human granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor receptor alpha-chain.

A panel of monoclonal antibodies was raised against the low-affinity human granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (hGM-CSF) receptor alpha-chain expressed as recombinant protein on murine FDC-P1 cells. All the selected antibodies were of the IgG2A isotype and bound to protein A. They each recognized both native and recombinant receptors by indirect surface immunofluorescence and by immunoprecipitation.

Structural characterization of a murine myeloid leukaemia inhibitory factor.

A leukaemia inhibitory factor (LIF) which induces macrophage differentiation in M1 murine myeloid leukaemia cells and suppresses their proliferation in vitro has been isolated in sufficient quantities (30 micrograms) from Krebs ascites tumour cell conditioned medium to permit its partial characterization by amino acid sequence analysis. The combination of sensitive microbore column (1.0 and 2.