Methods of treating or inhibiting inflammation in a subject include administering an anti-inflammatory protein to the subject. In some embodiments, the protein has at least 80% sequence identity to the amino acid sequence set forth as SEQ ID NO: 1, SEQ ID NO: 17, or fragments thereof. Isolated polypeptides, nucleic acids, and recombinant vectors including a nucleic acid encoding the anti-inflammatory protein (such as a nucleic acid encoding a protein with at least 80% sequence identity to SEQ ID NO: 1, SEQ ID NO: 17, or fragments thereof) operably linked to a heterologous promoter are also disclosed.

Methods of treating or inhibiting inflammation in a subject include administering an anti-inflammatory protein to the subject. In some embodiments, the protein has at least 80% sequence identity to the amino acid sequence set forth as SEQ ID NO: 1, SEQ ID NO: 17, or fragments thereof. Isolated polypeptides, nucleic acids, and recombinant vectors including a nucleic acid encoding the anti-inflammatory protein (such as a nucleic acid encoding a protein with at least 80% sequence identity to SEQ ID NO: 1, SEQ ID NO: 17, or fragments thereof) operably linked to a heterologous promoter are also disclosed.

A method for producing an active-form mutant enzyme, by specifying a protein of which a native form exhibits an enzyme activity but which has 10% or less enzyme activity of the native form when a gene of the protein is expressed to provide an inactive-form enzyme; determining a sequence conservation of amino acid residues in an amino acid sequence of the inactive-form enzyme and specifying amino acid residue(s) for which sequence conservation in the inactive-form enzyme is lower than sequence conservation of other amino acid(s) of the same residue; preparing a gene having a base sequence that codes for the amino acid sequence of the inactive-form enzyme in which at least one said specified amino acid residue is substituted by another amino acid with a higher sequence conservation; and expressing the gene to obtain an enzyme that exhibits an enzyme activity of the native form protein.

A method for producing an active-form mutant enzyme, by specifying a protein of which a native form exhibits an enzyme activity but which has 10% or less enzyme activity of the native form when a gene of the protein is expressed to provide an inactive-form enzyme; determining a sequence conservation of amino acid residues in an amino acid sequence of the inactive-form enzyme and specifying amino acid residue(s) for which sequence conservation in the inactive-form enzyme is lower than sequence conservation of other amino acid(s) of the same residue; preparing a gene having a base sequence that codes for the amino acid sequence of the inactive-form enzyme in which at least one said specified amino acid residue is substituted by another amino acid with a higher sequence conservation; and expressing the gene to obtain an enzyme that exhibits an enzyme activity of the native form protein.

A method for expressing, as a soluble protein or an active-form mutant enzyme, an enzyme that cannot be expressed as a soluble protein or an active-form enzyme in a heterologous expression system or that is obtained in a minute amount even when an active-form enzyme is expressed, the method including a technique for selecting an effective mutation site and a mutated amino acid. A new active-form mutant enzyme is also disclosed. The method involves: specifying an insoluble protein or an inactive-form enzyme; specifying a hydrophilic amino acid in a hydrophobic domain and/or a hydrophobic amino acid in a hydrophilic domain of an -helix structure portion of the insoluble protein or the inactive-form enzyme and preparing a gene that codes for an amino acid sequence in which a substitution is made to the hydrophilic amino acid in the hydrophobic domain and/or the hydrophobic amino acid in the hydrophilic domain.

A method for expressing, as a soluble protein or an active-form mutant enzyme, an enzyme that cannot be expressed as a soluble protein or an active-form enzyme in a heterologous expression system or that is obtained in a minute amount even when an active-form enzyme is expressed, the method including a technique for selecting an effective mutation site and a mutated amino acid. A new active-form mutant enzyme is also disclosed. The method involves: specifying an insoluble protein or an inactive-form enzyme; specifying a hydrophilic amino acid in a hydrophobic domain and/or a hydrophobic amino acid in a hydrophilic domain of an -helix structure portion of the insoluble protein or the inactive-form enzyme and preparing a gene that codes for an amino acid sequence in which a substitution is made to the hydrophilic amino acid in the hydrophobic domain and/or the hydrophobic amino acid in the hydrophilic domain.

A composition including a supernatant obtained from co-culture of phagocytes with apoptotic cells. The composition is obtained by a) providing phagocytes, b) providing apoptotic cells, c) optionally washing the cells from step a) and b), d) co-culturing the cells of step a) and b), and e) separating the supernatant from the cells. The composition may be used in preventing or treating a pathological immune response.

The invention provides a method for the expansion of anti-tumor T-cells, comprising the steps of: a) providing a phagocytosable particle, having one or more tumor neoantigenic constructs tightly associated thereto, wherein the tumor neoantigenic construct comprises an amino-acid sequence comprising at least one mutated amino acid known or suspected to be associated with a cancer in a subject, or a mutated or non-mutated amino-acid sequence known or suspected to be expressed in a cancer cell in the subject; b) providing a viable antigen-presenting cell; c) contacting the particle with the antigen-presenting cell in vitro under conditions allowing phagocytosis of the particle by the antigen-presenting cell; d) providing a T-cell sample comprising viable T-cells from the subject; e) contacting the T-cell sample with the antigen-presenting cell contacted with the particle in vitrounder conditions allowing specific activation of anti-tumor T-cells in response to antigen presented by the antigen-presenting cell. The invention also provides tumor neoantigenic constructs as defined in the specification.

The invention provides a method for the expansion of anti-tumor T-cells, comprising the steps of: a) providing a phagocytosable particle, having one or more tumor neoantigenic constructs tightly associated thereto, wherein the tumor neoantigenic construct comprises an amino-acid sequence comprising at least one mutated amino acid known or suspected to be associated with a cancer in a subject, or a mutated or non-mutated amino-acid sequence known or suspected to be expressed in a cancer cell in the subject; b) providing a viable antigen-presenting cell; c) contacting the particle with the antigen-presenting cell in vitro under conditions allowing phagocytosis of the particle by the antigen-presenting cell; d) providing a T-cell sample comprising viable T-cells from the subject; e) contacting the T-cell sample with the antigen-presenting cell contacted with the particle in vitrounder conditions allowing specific activation of anti-tumor T-cells in response to antigen presented by the antigen-presenting cell. The invention also provides tumor neoantigenic constructs as defined in the specification.

The present invention provides a composition and method for treating, delaying the onset, delaying progression of, reducing the incidence of or reducing the severity of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in a subject. The composition a peptide derived from SOD1 which can be used to inhibit formation of SOD1 amyloid-like aggregates or for production of anti-SOD1 antibodies.