Use of endokine alpha antagonists to diagnose and treat TNF-related disorders

摘要

The specification describes isolated nucleic acid molecules comprising a polynucleotide encoding a cytokine that is similar to TNF and is believed to have similar biological effects and activities. This cytokine is named endokine alpha, and includes endokine alpha polypeptides having at least a portion of the amino acid sequence in FIG. 1 (SEQ ID NO:2) or an amino acid sequence encoded by the cDNA clone deposited in a bacterial host as ATCC Deposit Number 97640 on June 27, 1996. The nucleotide sequence, which was determined by sequencing the deposited endokine alpha cDNA clone, contains an open reading frame encoding a polypeptide of about 169 amino acid residues including an N-terminal methionine, an intracellular domain of about 17 amino acid residues, a transmembrane domain of about 26 amino acids, an extracellular domain of about 126 amino acids, and a deduced molecular weight for the complete protein of about 19 kDa. The 126 amino acid sequence of the expected mature endokine alpha protein is shown in FIG. 1 (SEQ ID NO:2) (residues 44 to 169)