VIRUS CYTOKINE BINDING PROTEINS IN RAPID CYTOKINE ASSAYS

细胞因子是免疫功能的可溶性蛋白介质，是平衡先天或细胞介导的免疫反应的关键。由于细胞因子水平可以指示疾病进展和/或消退，并且在越来越多的情况下，细胞因子正在作为治疗手段进行评估，因此基础研究和医疗保健行业都普遍需要以低成本快速、准确、精确和敏感地纯化和/或测量关键细胞因子。我们的长期目标是用来自微生物病原体的细胞因子结合蛋白取代细胞因子纯化和免疫分析中的抗体，这将更容易在各种应用中操作，并且通过重组DNA技术生产将大大降低成本。最重要的是，基于这些细胞因子结合蛋白的检测将被设计用于快速测定细胞因子水平，这将对疾病的诊断和/或监测很重要。为了验证这种方法，我们将研究由鼠痘病毒长痘编码的ifn - γ结合蛋白。该蛋白是已知的六种痘病毒细胞因子结合蛋白之一，具有高亲和力结合小鼠和人ifn - γ的独特特性。建议的商业应用：病毒细胞因子结合蛋白可用于纯化或快速测量治疗上重要的细胞因子，具有准确性、精密度和敏感性，但成本低。

Cytokines are soluble protein mediators of immune function that are pivotal to a balanced innate or cell-mediated immune response. Since cytokine levels can be indicative of disease progression and/or resolution, and in a growing number of situations cytokines are being evaluated as therapeutics, there is a common need in both basic research and the health care industry to purify and/or measure key cytokines rapidly with accuracy, precision, and sensitivity, but at a low cost. Our long term goal is the replacement of antibodies in cytokine purification and immunoassays with cytokine binding proteins from microbial pathogens, which will be easier to manipulate for various applications and whose production by recombinant DNA technology should allow significant reductions in cost. Most importantly, the assays based on these cytokine binding proteins will be designed for rapid determination of cytokine levels which will be important in the diagnosis and/or monitoring of disease. To validate this approach we will study an IFN-gamma binding protein encoded by a murine poxvirus ectromelia. This protein is one of six known poxvirus cytokine binding proteins, and has the unique property of binding with high affinity both mouse and human IFN-gamma. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION: Virus cytokine binding proteins could be used to purify or to measure rapidly the therapeutically important cytokines with accuracy, precision and sensitivity, but at low cost.