Cl. Chirinosrojas et al., OF A SOLID-PHASE RANDOM PEPTIDE LIBRARY TO IDENTIFY INHIBITORS OF TNF-ALPHA MEDIATED CYTOTOXICITY IN-VITRO, Cytokine, 9(4), 1997, pp. 226-232
Tumour necrosis factor (TNF) is a pleiotropic cytokine which plays a c
entral role in infection, inflammation and autoimmune diseases, Its fu
nctions are mediated through binding to high affinity cell surface rec
eptors, An approach to modulate excessive levels of TNF-alpha in the s
erum is the use of soluble receptors, In this study the potential of a
solid-phase combinatorial peptide library was investigated to identif
y peptide mimics of the binding site of the TNF-alpha receptor, One of
the identified mimotopes was shown to inhibit TNF-alpha-mediated cyto
toxicity in mouse L929 and in a human KYM-1D4 cell lines in a dose-dep
endent fashion, Characterization of the mimotope sequence by high-perf
ormance liquid chromatography and mass spectroscopy has shown that the
inhibitory effect of the mimotope was dependent upon the presence of
a protective MTR group on the side chains of the arginine residues in
the mimotope sequence, Furthermore, antibodies to the mimotope were sh
own to recognize the remombinant human TNF 55-kDa receptor in an ELISA
assay, These findings highlight the potential of combinatorial peptid
e libraries in identifying peptide mimics of the binding site of TNF-a
lpha receptor, which can be used as competive inhibitors of ligand-rec
eptor interactions. (C) 1997 Academic Press Limited.