A designer hyper interleukin 11 (H11) is a biologically active cytokine

摘要

BackgroundInterleukin 11 (IL-11) is a pleiotropic cytokine with anti-apoptotic, anti-inflammatory and hematopoietic potential. The IL-11 activity is determined by the expression of the IL-11R receptor alpha (IL-11Rα) and the signal transducing subunit β (gp130) on the cell membrane. A recombinant soluble form of the IL-11Rα (sIL-11Rα) in combination with IL-11 acts as an agonist on cells expressing the gp130 molecule. We constructed a designer cytokine Hyper IL-11 (H11), which is exclusively composed of naturally existing components. It contains the full length sIL-11Rα connected with the mature IL-11 protein using their natural sequences only. Such a construct has two major advantages: (i) its components are as close as possible to the natural forms of both proteins and (ii) it lacks an artificial linker what should avoid induction of antibody production.