ARTICLE | Cover Story
A super kind of cytokine
April 19, 2012 7:00 AM UTC
Stanford and Zurich researchers have engineered a variant of IL-2 that shows a better antitumor response in mice than wild-type IL-2.1 The new IL-2 superkine variant, dubbed super-2, has been licensed by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., which is planning additional preclinical studies of the compound.
IL-2 is an immunostimulatory cytokine that binds and activates a wide range of immune cells. Novartis AG markets Proleukin aldesleukin IL-2 to treat metastatic melanoma and renal cancer...