Nucleic acids encoding anti-IL-6 antibodies of defined epitopic specificity

摘要

The invention relates to nucleic acids encoding antibody or antibody fragments that specifically binds to an epitope on an intact human IL-6 polypeptide, which epitope when ascertained by epitopic mapping includes one or more residues comprised in each of the following IL-6 fragments (i) a fragment consisting of amino acid residues 37-51 of human Il-6, (ii) a fragment consisting of amino acid residues 70-84 of human Il-6, (iii) a fragment consisting of amino acid residues 169-183 of human Il-6, (iv) a fragment consisting of amino acid residues 31-45 of human Il-6 and (v) a fragment consisting of amino acid residues 58-72 of human IL-6.