title: Identification of single amino acid residues of human IL-6 involved in receptor binding and signal initiation.
abstract: The pleiotropic cytokine interleukin-6 (IL-6) has been predicted to be a protein with four antiparallel alpha-helices. On target cells, IL-6 interacts with a specific ligand binding receptor subunit (IL-6R), and this complex associates with the signal-transducing subunit gp130. Human IL-6 acts on human and murine cells, whereas murine IL-6 is only active on murine cells. The construction of chimeric human/murine IL-6 proteins has allowed us to define a region (residues 77-95, region 2c) within the human IL-6 protein that is important for IL-6R binding and a region (residues 50-55, region 2a2) that is important for IL-6R dependent gp130 interaction. Guided by sequence alignment and molecular modeling, we have constructed several IL-6 variants with point mutations in these regions and have tested them for receptor binding and signal initiation. Within region 2c, phenylalanine 78 was involved in receptor binding, whereas lysine 54 within region 2a2 participated in gp130 activation. Furthermore, some IL-6 variants with lysine 54 replacements could be used to construct muteins that retained receptor binding but failed to activate gp130. Such IL-6 muteins were efficient IL-6 receptor antagonists.
authors.affiliation: 1st Department of Medicine, Johannes Gutenberg-University of Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ehlers
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Grötzinger
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fischer
authors.forename: H K
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Bos
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Brakenhoff
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rose-John
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000596:Amino Acids / Q000378:metabolism*; D000818:Animals; D015703:Antigens, CD / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D050822:Cytokine Receptor gp130; D006801:Humans; D015850:Interleukin-6 / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D008024:Ligands; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins / Q000378:metabolism; D051379:Mice; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016297:Mutagenesis, Site-Directed; D017354:Point Mutation; D011485:Protein Binding; D011487:Protein Conformation; D018123:Receptors, Interleukin / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D019947:Receptors, Interleukin-6; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D015398:Signal Transduction; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship
chemical_list: D000596:Amino Acids; D015703:Antigens, CD; C494199:IL6ST protein, human; C494200:Il6st protein, mouse; D015850:Interleukin-6; D008024:Ligands; D008562:Membrane Glycoproteins; D018123:Receptors, Interleukin; D019947:Receptors, Interleukin-6; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; D050822:Cytokine Receptor gp130