PEPTIDE ANTAGONIST OF INTERLEUKIN-15 ACTIVITY

摘要

The present invention is related to the field of molecular immunology, particularly to a peptide derived from the sequence of interleukine-15 (IL-15), wherein said peptide was optimized to inhibit the biological activity of this molecule. In the present invention, it is shown that this peptide inhibits IL-15-induced T cell proliferation, Tumor Necrosis Factor ± (TNF±) induction and the expression of IL-8 and IL-6 by the IL-15 receptor ± subunit (IL-15R±), all these effects mediated by the binding of the peptide to the IL-15R±. The invention is also related to the use of the peptide to treat pathologies where the abnormal expression of IL-15 or IL-15R± is related to the course of the disease, such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and prostate cancer.