Teijin Limited

Arata Kato

Yataro Ichikawa

Kazuo Kitai

Satoshi Nakamura

Tsukio Masegi

Jun Suzuki

Noriyuki Tsunekawa

Masami Fukuoka

Kenji Yone

Terminal modifications of tumor necrosis factor

A method of confirming the diagnosis of Kawasaki disease in a patient which comprises assaying the patient's body fluid for the presence of elevated levels of a substance specifically bound by an anti-tumor necrosis factor monoclonal antibody.

Method of detecting Kawasaki disease using anti-tumor necrosis antibody

A novel physiologically active polypeptide having antitumor activity obtained by improving human tumor necrosis factor (TNF). The amino acid sequence of the polypeptide essentially corresponds to that of human tumor necrosis factor, except that ten amino acids Nos. 1 to 10 are deleted and (Met).sub.n -Arg-Lys-Arg are added to the amino (NH.sub.2)-terminus, where n is 0 or 1. Other amino acid modifications can also be made to the polypeptide while retaining high antitumor activity. The novel polypeptide has less side effects that the natural-type TNF, particularly with respect to cytotoxicity. A a DNA fragment encoding the polypeptide, a recombinant plasmid containing the DNA fragment, a recombinant microorganism cell transformed with the plasmid, a method of producing a novel physiologically active polypeptide using the microorganism cell, and a pharmaceutical composition comprising the polypeptide as an active ingredient are also provided.

Muteins of tumor necrosis factor

Growing community of inventors

Sayama, Japan

Arata Kato