Human ciliary neurotrophic factor: a structure-function analysis

Ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) promotes survival in vitro and in vivo of several neuronal cell types including sensory and motor neurons. The primary structure of CNTF suggests it to be a cytosolic protein with strong similarity to the alpha-helical cytokine family which is characterized by a bundle of four anti-parallel helices. CNTF exerts its activity via complexation with CNTF receptor (CNTF-R). This complex consists of a CNTF-binding protein (CNTF-R) and two proteins important for signal transduction [gp130 and leukaemia inhibitory factor receptor (LIF-R)]. We have shortened the cDNA coding for CNTF at both the 5' and the 3' end and expressed the truncated proteins in bacteria. Biological activities of the protein preparations were determined by their ability to induce proliferation of BAF/3 cells that were stably transfected with CNTF-R, gp130 and LIF-R cDNAs. CNTF proteins with 14 amino acid residues removed from the N-terminus were biologically active whereas the removal of 23 amino acids resulted in an inactive protein. In addition, 18 amino acid residues could be removed from the C-terminus of the CNTF protein without apparent loss of bioactivity, but further truncation at the C-terminus yielded biologically inactive proteins. The introduction of two point mutations into the CNTF protein at a site that presumably interacts with one of the two signal-transducing proteins resulted in a CNTF mutant with no measurable bioactivity. In addition, a model of the three-dimensional structure of human CNTF was constructed using the recently established structural co-ordinates of the related cytokine, granulocyte colony-stimulating factor. CD spectra of CNTF together with our mutational analysis and our three-dimensional model fully support the view that CNTF belongs to the family of alpha-helical cytokines. It is expected that our results will facilitate the rational design of CNTF mutants with agonistic or antagonistic properties.