Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • NEWS AND VIEWS

Designer protein delivers signal of choice

A computational strategy has delivered a redesigned, more stable version of a cytokine protein that mimics the natural protein’s interactions with receptors, opening the way for designer cytokine-based therapeutics.
  1. E. Yvonne Jones

    1. E. Yvonne Jones is in the Division of Structural Biology, Wellcome Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7BN, UK.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

Messenger proteins called cytokines are secreted from cells and travel throughout the body. In the immune system, a cytokine called interleukin-2 (IL-2) delivers signals to receptors that regulate the activities of white blood cells. Cytokines such as IL-2 could therefore be used as therapeutics to modulate the strength of immune responses. However, the clinical uses of cytokines are often severely limited by properties that are inherent in their structures. Writing in Nature, Silva et al.1 describe how they have engineered a protein structure from scratch to replicate the beneficial receptor-binding properties of IL-2 without the drawbacks of the original cytokine.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 565, 165-166 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-07883-z

References

  1. Silva, D.-A. et al. Nature 565, 186–191 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Rosenberg, S. A. J. Immunol. 192, 5451–5458 (2014).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Siegel, J. P. & Puri, R. K. J. Clin. Oncol. 9, 694–704 (1991).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Sim, G. C. et al. J. Clin. Invest. 124, 99–110 (2014).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Boyman, O. & Sprent, J. Nature Rev. Immunol. 12, 180–190 (2012).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Kureshi, R., Bahri, M. & Spangler, J. B. Curr. Opin. Chem. Eng. 19, 27–34 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Wang, X., Rickert, M. & Garcia, K. C. Science 310, 1159–1163 (2005).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Stauber, D. J., Debler, E. W., Horton, P. A., Smith, K. A. & Wilson, I. A. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 103, 2788–2793 (2006).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links