Construction and characterization of multimeric IL-15-based molecules with CD3 binding domains

Abstract

The invention features soluble fusion protein complexes comprising at least two soluble fusion proteins. For example, the first fusion protein is an anti-CD3 antibody covalently linked to an interleukin-15 (IL-15) polypeptide or functional fragment thereof. The second fusion protein comprises a binding domain that recognizes disease antigens, wherein this domain is covalently linked to a soluble interleukin-15 receptor alpha (IL-15Rα) polypeptide or a functional fragment thereof. One or both of the first and second fusion proteins further includes an immunoglobulin Fc domain or a functional fragment thereof, and the IL-15 domain of first fusion protein binds to the soluble IL-15Rα domain of the second fusion protein to form a soluble fusion protein complex. The invention further provides methods for making and using the complexes of the invention.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.