Hexameric structure and assembly of the interleukin-6/IL-6 alpha-receptor/gp 130 complex

Professor Garcia's group at Stanford characterized the structure and assembly of the immunoregulatory cytokine, interleukin-6 (IL-6), which activates a cell-surface signalling assembly. A structural model of the complex is presented. The complex forms a hexamer containing 2 IL-6, 2 IL6R-alpha and two gp130 which assemble sequentially and cooperatively. This structure reveals a conserved architectural blueprint for assembly of all gp130-cytokine signalling complexes. For details on how the DAWN EOS was used, please see the Supporting Online Material for this paper.

Boulanger, M. J.; Chow, D.; Brevnova, E. E.; Garcia, K. C. Science  2003, 300, 2101-2104. DOI: 10.1126/science.1083901