Latency can be conferred to a variety of cytokines by fusion with latency-associated peptide from TGF-β.

Abstract

Targeting cytokines to sites of disease has clear advantages because it increases their therapeutic index. We designed fusion proteins of the latent-associated peptide (LAP) derived from TGF-β with various cytokines via a matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) cleavage site. This design confers latency, increased half-life and targeting to sites of inflammation. The aim of this study is to determine whether this approach can be applied to cytokines of different molecular structures and sizes.