A novel recombinant fusion protein encoding a 20-amino acid residue of the third extracellular (E3) domain of CCR2 neutralizes the biological activity of CCL2

L Izhak, G Wildbaum, Y Zohar, R Anunu… - The journal of …, 2009 - journals.aai.org
L Izhak, G Wildbaum, Y Zohar, R Anunu, L Klapper, A Elkeles, J Seagal, E Yefenof…
The journal of immunology, 2009journals.aai.org
CCL2 is a key CC chemokine that has been implicated in a variety of inflammatory
autoimmune diseases and in tumor progression and it is therefore an important target for
therapeutic intervention in these diseases. Soluble receptor-based therapy is a known
approach for neutralizing the in vivo functions of soluble mediators. Owing to the complexity
of seven-transmembrane G protein-coupled receptors, efforts to generate neutralizing
soluble chemokine receptors have so far failed. We developed a strategy that is based on …
Abstract
CCL2 is a key CC chemokine that has been implicated in a variety of inflammatory autoimmune diseases and in tumor progression and it is therefore an important target for therapeutic intervention in these diseases. Soluble receptor-based therapy is a known approach for neutralizing the in vivo functions of soluble mediators. Owing to the complexity of seven-transmembrane G protein-coupled receptors, efforts to generate neutralizing soluble chemokine receptors have so far failed. We developed a strategy that is based on the generation of short recombinant proteins encoding different segments of a G protein-coupled receptor, and tested the ability of each of them to bind and neutralize its target chemokine. We show that a fusion protein comprised of as few as 20 aa of the third extracellular (E3) domain of the CCL2 receptor, stabilized by the IgG H chain Fc domain (E3-IgG or BL-2030), selectively binds CCL2 and CCL16 and effectively neutralizes their biological activities. More importantly, E3-IgG (BL-2030) could effectively suppress the in vivo biological activity of CCL2, attenuating ongoing experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis, as well as the development of human prostate tumor in SCID mice.
journals.aai.org