Patent ID: 7425324

Claim:
An isolated MCP protein comprising: a) amino acid substitutions at positions 18 and 19, as numbered on the sequence of human mature MCP-1, said human mature MCP-1 corresponding to amino acids 24-99 of SEQ ID NO: 1, wherein amino acids at positions 18 and 19 are substituted with alanine, glycine, serine, threonine, proline, aspartic acid, asparagine, glutamic acid or glutamine and wherein said MCP protein antagonizes an activity of unaltered MCP proteins; or b) amino acid substitutions at positions 18 and 19 and amino acid substitutions at one or more amino acid positions numbered 24, 44, 49, 58, 66 and 75, as numbered on the sequence of human mature MCP-1, said human mature MCP-1 corresponding to amino acids 24-99 of SEQ ID NO: 1, wherein amino acids at positions 18 and 19 are substituted with alanine, glycine, serine, threonine, proline, aspartic acid, asparagine, glutamic acid or glutamine and wherein said MCP protein antagonizes an activity of unaltered MCP proteins.