Patent ID: 7198781

Claim:
A chimeric glycosylated soluble interleukin-6 receptor (sIL-6R)—interleukin-6 (IL-6) polypeptide (sIL-6R/IL-6) consisting of: an amino acid sequence which is a fusion product of sIL-6RδVal fused to IL-6, including a non-immunogenic linker therebetween that is a tripeptide of the sequence Glu-Phe-Met, said chimeric polypeptide having the sequence of SEQ ID NO:7 or an amino acid sequence which is a fusion product of sIL-6RδVal fused to IL-6, that includes a peptide of 13 amino acid residues of sequence Glu-Phe-Gly-Ala-Gly-Leu-Val-Leu-Gly-Gly-Gln-Phe-Met (SEQ ID NO:1) as the linker therebetween, said chimeric polypeptide having the sequence of SEQ ID NO:13, wherein the linker does not prevent the chimeric polypeptide from triggering dimerization of gp130 in human cells.