Expression of biologically active human interleukin 1 subpeptides by transfected simian COS cells

"Interleukin 1" (IL-1) is a term used to describe the family of macrophage-derived proteins that mediate many immune and inflammatory reactions. We have previously described the molecular cloning and sequencing of the cDNA encoding the predominant (neutral) form of human IL-1, which has been designated IL-1 beta. We report here that transfection of simian COS cells with this cDNA clone results in the transcription of IL-1 mRNA and the synthesis of antibody-neutralizable intracellular IL-1 biological activity. In addition, selective deletion of regions of the IL-1 cDNA judged not to be essential for function, on the basis of conserved sequence homology, resulted in localization of a "core" region responsible for a majority of the biological activity. These results permit mapping the active site of IL-1 to a peptide of 6970 molecular weight located within the carboxyl third (between Met-136 and Gln-197) of the IL-1 precursor.