Abstract
Chimeric fusion proteins involving IgG have proven valuable in studying protein-protein interactions and may possess therapeutic applications as well. For example, three receptor subtypes for the natriuretic peptides, when fused to the Fc portion of human IgG ${\gamma}$ chain, were quantitatively and qualitatively indistinguishable from the native receptor, thus allowing detailed structure-function studies of the receptor. In an attempt to block human immunodeficiency virus infectivity with soluble derivatives of CD4, a CD4/IgG Fc chimeric molecule was shown to increase the plasma half life of soluble CD4 and possessed the added advantage of IgG Fc-mediated placental transfer. In the case of the KGFR, this approach provided a framework for dissection of its ligand binding domains and made it possible to demonstrate that high affinity binding sites for two ligands, aFGF and KGF, reside within different receptor Ig-like domains. Chimeric molecules fused to immunoglobulins would have the advantages of secretion from transfected cells as well as detection and purification from medium utilizing Staphylococcus aureus Protein A. In addition, where highly related receptors make their discrimination very hard due to the difficulties in generating specific immunochemical probes, IgG fusion protein with tailor-made specificities confers particular advantages to elucidate patterns of receptor distribution and expression. The approach described here may have general applications in defining ligand-receptor interactions as well as searching for specific agonists and antagonists of receptor function.