METHOD FOR REDUCING IMMUNOGENICITY OF PROTEINS

摘要

It is known that proteins, or parts of them, may be rendered non- or less immunogenic to humans or other species by identifying one or more potential T cell epitopes and eliminating them by amino acid modification. Conventionally, certain epitopes may be retained in a protein sequence if the peptides constituting such epitopes are present in endogenous human protein, since they would be recognised as "self". However, it has now been found that even self epitopes may give rise to immune reactions. The invention provides for their elimination, for example by recombinant DNA technology, to render them more useful for administration to humans, for example for therapeutic or diagnostic purposes.