STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS REQUIRED FOR RECEPTOR RECOGNITION OF HUMAN INTERFERON-GAMMA

Interferon (IFN)-gamma is a central factor in numerous immune response s. Recently the three-dimensional structure of human and rabbit IFN-ga mma has been elucidated. This review attempts to bring together the st ructure and function information into a working model of IFN-gamma:rec eptor interaction. Based on mutagenesis studies, and corroborated by w ork with peptides, antibodies and proteolytic digestion, three regions have been found to be important for receptor binding: a long loop con necting the A and B helices, His111 in the F helix and a conserved sec tion of the flexible carboxyl terminus. These three regions may form o ne continuous binding domain.