The interleukin-4 (IL-4) cytokine plays a critical role in modulating immune homeostasis. Although there is great interest in harnessing this cytokine as a therapeutic in natural or engineered formats, the clinical potential of native IL-4 is limited by its instability and pleiotropic actions. Here, we design IL-4 cytokine mimetics (denoted Neo-4) based on a de novo engineered IL-2 mimetic scaffold and demonstrate that these cytokines can recapitulate physiological functions of IL-4 in cellular and animal models. In contrast with natural IL-4, Neo-4 is hyperstable and signals exclusively through the type I IL-4 receptor complex, providing previously inaccessible insights into differential IL-4 signaling through type I versus type II receptors. Because of their hyperstability, our computationally designed mimetics can directly incorporate into sophisticated biomaterials that require heat processing, such as three-dimensional-printed scaffolds. Neo-4 should be broadly useful for interrogating IL-4 biology, and the design workflow will inform targeted cytokine therapeutic development.
Organizational Affiliation:
Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Translational Tissue Engineering Center, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Department of Biochemistry and Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
Department of Bioengineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Graduate Program in Biological Physics, Structure and Design, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
Laboratory of Molecular Immunology and the Immunology Center, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
Departments of Molecular and Cellular Physiology and Structural Biology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.
Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Bloomberg Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
College of Medicine, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA.
Department of Bioinformatics, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Institute for Nanobiotechnology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.
Department of Biochemistry and Institute for Protein Design, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA. dabaker@uw.edu.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA. dabaker@uw.edu.
Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA. jamie.spangler@jhu.edu.
Translational Tissue Engineering Center, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA. jamie.spangler@jhu.edu.
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA. jamie.spangler@jhu.edu.
Bloomberg Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA. jamie.spangler@jhu.edu.
Department of Oncology, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA. jamie.spangler@jhu.edu.
Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA. jamie.spangler@jhu.edu.
Department of Ophthalmology, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA. jamie.spangler@jhu.edu.
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