The synthetic fragment VQGEESNDK, corresponding to the amino acid sequence in position 163-171 of human IL-1 beta, possesses the immunostimulatory but not the pyrogenic activity of the mature IL-1 beta polypeptide in vivo. To assess the relevance of this domain of IL-1 beta for its biologic activities, a mAb was raised against the synthetic peptide 163-171. The mAb Vhp20 could effectively recognize human rIL-1 beta in RIA and immunoblotting. In vivo, the mAb Vhp20 was able to selectively inhibit the immunostimulatory activity of IL-1 beta, but it could not affect the fever-inducing capacity of IL-1 beta. It is proposed that functional domains could be identified in the human IL-1 beta protein and that the fragment in position 163-171 is of major importance for the adjuvant capacity of the entire molecule, but irrelevant to its pyrogenic activity.
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Boraschi et al. (1989) studied this question.