A-helical class 2 cytokines

Helical cytokines are secreted proteins that function as intracellular messengers. The information content contained on their a-helical scaffolds is decoded by extracellular high-fidelity interactions with cell surface receptor chains that initiate intracellular signaling cascades leading to diverse cellular functions. Amino acid sequence analysis of the extracellular cytokine binding domains revealed two distinct receptor subclasses, class-1 and class-2 (Bazan, 1990a,b). The a-helical cytokines were subsequently defined based on the class of receptor (class 1 or class 2) they... [Pg.171]