title: Receptors for interleukin-13 and interleukin-4 are complex and share a novel component that functions in signal transduction.
abstract: Interleukin-4 (IL-4) and interleukin-13 (IL-13) are two cytokines that are secreted by activated T cells and have similar effects on monocytes and B cells. We describe a mutant form of human interleukin-4 (hIL-4) that competitively antagonizes both hIL-4 and human interleukin-13 (hIL-13). The amino acid sequences of IL-4 and IL-13 are approximately 30% homologous and circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy shows that both proteins have a highly alpha-helical structure. IL-13 competitively inhibited binding of hIL-4 to functional human IL-4 receptors (called hIL-4R) expressed on a cell line which responds to both hIL-4 and IL-13. Binding of hIL-4 to an hIL-4 responsive cell line that does not respond to IL-13, and binding of hIL-4 to cloned IL-4R ligand binding protein expressed on heterologous cells, were not inhibited by IL-13. hIL-4 bound with approximately 100-fold lower affinity to the IL-4R ligand binding protein than to functional IL-4R. The mutant hIL-4 antagonist protein bound to both IL-4R types with the lower affinity. The above results demonstrate that IL-4 and IL-13 share a receptor component that is important for signal transduction. In addition, our data establish that IL-4R is a complex of at least two components one of which is a novel affinity converting subunit that is critical for cellular signal transduction.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology, DNAX Research Institute for Molecular and Cellular Biology, Palo Alto, CA 94304-1104.
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Zurawski
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Vega
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Huyghe
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zurawski
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D001667:Binding, Competitive; D002460:Cell Line; D006801:Humans; D018793:Interleukin-13; D053661:Interleukin-13 Receptor alpha1 Subunit; D015847:Interleukin-4 / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000378:metabolism*; D007378:Interleukins / Q000378:metabolism*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D009838:Oligodeoxyribonucleotides; D011971:Receptors, Immunologic / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D018123:Receptors, Interleukin; D053660:Receptors, Interleukin-13; D019948:Receptors, Interleukin-4; D011975:Receptors, Mitogen / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D015398:Signal Transduction
chemical_list: C508181:IL13RA1 protein, human; D018793:Interleukin-13; D053661:Interleukin-13 Receptor alpha1 Subunit; D007378:Interleukins; D009838:Oligodeoxyribonucleotides; D011971:Receptors, Immunologic; D018123:Receptors, Interleukin; D053660:Receptors, Interleukin-13; D019948:Receptors, Interleukin-4; D011975:Receptors, Mitogen; D015847:Interleukin-4