Synonyms
Interleukin-6 antagonists; Interleukin-6 blockers
Definition
Inhibitors of interleukin-6 (IL-6) are proteins which decrease the actions of the inflammatory cytokine, IL-6. Clinically, tocilizumab is the major inhibitor of IL-6. Several other proteins with IL-6 inhibitory actions (e.g., sirukumab) are being tested in clinical trials. IL-6 inhibitors are members of a general class, biological disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (bDMARDs). Unlike the conventional synthetic DMARDs (csDMARDs) which have small molecular masses, they are not classified as slow-acting anti-rheumatic drug (SAARDs) because they are considered to have more specific and rapidly developing actions.
Chemical Structures and Properties
Tocilizumab is a humanized monoclonal antibody with molecular mass of 145,000 D. Tocilizumab was developed by grafting the complementarity determining regions of a nude mouse anti-human IL-6R antibody onto human IgG1. The light chain is made up of 214 amino acids. The heavy...
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Pile, K.D., Graham, G.G., Mahler, S.M. (2016). Interleukin-6 Inhibitor: Tocilizumab. In: Parnham, M.J. (eds) Compendium of Inflammatory Diseases. Springer, Basel. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7643-8550-7_231
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7643-8550-7_231
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