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In Vivo Neutralization of Human IL-6 (hIL-6) Achieved by Immunization of hIL-6-Transgenic Mice with a hIL-6 Receptor Antagonist¹

Fabrizio De Benedetti^*, Patrizia Pignatti^*, Marina Vivarelli^*, Cristina Meazza^*, Gennaro Ciliberto, Rocco Savino and Alberto Martini^2,*

^* Dipartimento di Scienze Pediatriche, Instituto di Ricerca e Cura a Carattere Scientifico Policlinico San Matteo, Universita’ degli Studi di Pavia, Pavia, Italy; and Instituto Ricerche di Biologia Moleculaire, Rome, Italy

Neutralization of IL-6 represents an attractive therapeutic option in several diseases, including B cell neoplasia, osteoporosis, and autoimmunity. Therapeutic attempts in humans have shown that administration of injectable doses of a mAb to IL-6 does not provide efficient neutralization of the cytokine in vivo. Therefore, alternative approaches are needed. In this study, we evaluated whether the Ab response to human IL-6 (hIL-6) elicited by vaccination with Sant1 (a hIL-6 variant with seven amino acid substitutions) was able to fully correct in vivo the clinical and biological effects of a chronic endogenous overproduction of hIL-6 in the hIL-6-transgenic NSE/hIL-6 mice. Because of the overexpression of hIL-6, occurring since birth, with circulating levels in the nanogram per milliliter range, NSE/hIL-6 mice have a marked decrease in growth rate, associated with decrease in insulin-like growth factor I levels, and represent an animal model of the growth impairment associated with human chronic inflammatory diseases. Following immunization with Sant1, but not with hIL-6, NSE/hIL-6 mice developed high titers of polyclonal Abs to hIL-6. The Abs, acquired by transplacental transfer, effectively neutralized IL-6 activities in vivo as shown by the complete correction of the growth defect and normalization of insulin-like growth factor levels in the hIL-6-transgenic offspring. Immunization with Sant1 could therefore represent a novel and simple therapeutic approach for the specific neutralization of IL-6 in humans.

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