RANTES and MCP-3 antagonists bind multiple chemokine receptors

Antagonists of multiple chemokines could be more effective than inhibitors of specific chemokines for controlling cell migration and inflammation. To attempt to identify such antagonists we characterized a number of truncated analogs of regulated on activation normal T cell expressed protein (RANTES), monocyte chemoattractant protein (MCP)-3, and MCP-1. On the basis of their ability to compete for binding of their parent chemokines, three analogs were selected for cross-reactivity studies: RANTES (9-68), MCP-3 (10-76), and MCP-1 (9-76). These analogs bound to THP-1 monocytic cells with dissociation constants that were within 4-6-fold of their native counterparts, but they did not promote detectable chemotaxis of THP-1 cells or enzyme release from purified human monocytes. The RANTES (9-68) analog competed for the binding and inhibited the activities of all three chemokines. In contrast, native RANTES was specific for RANTES binding sites. However, truncation of either MCP-1 or MCP-3 did not change their respective binding specificity. MCP-3 and MCP-3 (10-76) competed for binding of all three labeled chemokines. MCP-1 (9-76) competed strongly for binding of labeled MCP-1, but only weakly for the other two labeled ligands and inhibited the activities induced by MCP-1 and MCP-3 but not RANTES. Although RANTES (9-68) and MCP-3 (10-76) inhibited all three chemokines, the RANTES analog was significantly more potent for RANTES-induced activity. The results indicate that NH2-terminal residues partly determine the receptor specificity of RANTES, and deletions within this region permit binding to multiple chemokine receptors. The findings suggest the feasibility of design of high affinity multi-specific CC chemokine antagonists.