Patent ID: 7232563

Claim:
An interferon-α/interferon-τ hybrid protein comprising: about 172 amino acid residues having an N-terminal region and a C-terminal region; wherein, the N-terminal region is selected from a group consisting of (i) a sequence of amino acid residues ranging from about position 1 to about position 162 of human interferon-αD (SEQ ID NO:57), and (ii) any amino acid sequence having at least 95% homology to the residues ranging from about position 1 to about position 162 of SEQ ID NO:57; the C-terminal region is selected from a group consisting of a sequence of amino acid residues ranging from about position 163 to about position 172 of (i) a ruminant interferon-τ (SEQ ID NO:55 or SEQ ID NO:56), and (ii) any amino acid sequence having at least 95% homology to the residues ranging from about position 163 to about position 172 of SEQ ID NO:55 or SEQ NO:56; and wherein, the hybrid protein has at least one function of human interferon-αD and a reduced cytotoxicity relative to the cytoxicity of the human interferon-αD.