Use of il-6/il-6 chimera in huntington's disease

Abstract

The invention relates to the use of an IL-6R/IL-6 chimera, a mutein, isoform, fused protein, functional derivative, active fraction or circularly permutated derivative or a salt thereof, for the manufacture of a medicament for the treatment and/or prevention of Huntington's disease.

1 . A method for the treatment of Huntington's disease, comprising administering to a patient in need thereof 
 1) an effective amount of an IL-6R/IL-6 chimera comprising 
 a) IL-6R having the sequence of residues 20-356 of SEQ ID NO:1, or a mutein thereof having at least 90% identity thereto and maintaining the biological activity of the unmodified chimera with respect to the treatment of Huntington's disease;  
 b) IL-6 having the sequence of residues 360-543 of SEQ ID NO:1, or a mutein thereof having at least 90% identity thereto and maintaining the biological activity of the unmodified chimera with respect to the treatment of Huntington's disease; and  
 c) optionally, a linker sequence between the sequences of a) and b), said linker sequence having a length of 1-18 residues; or a functional derivative or salt of said chimera, said chimera being glycosylated at one or more sites, or  
   2) an effective amount of a cell or expression vector expressing said chimera.    
     
     
         2 . A method according to  claim 1 , wherein said sIL-6R, IL-6 and optional linker sequence is fused to an immunoglobulin (Ig).  
     
     
         3 . A method according to  claim 1 , wherein the functional derivative comprises at least one moiety attached to one or more functional groups which occur as one or more side chains on the amino acid residues.  
     
     
         4 . A method according to  claim 1 , wherein said administering step comprises administering a cell expressing said chimera.  
     
     
         5 . A method according to  claim 1 , wherein said administering step comprises administering an expression vector comprising the coding sequence of said chimera.  
     
     
         6 . A method according to  claim 5 , wherein the vector is a lentiviral vector.