Patent 7410780 was granted and assigned to ZymoGenetics on August, 2008 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
The polypeptides, and the polynucleotides encoding for them, described herein are IL-21 antagonists that bind with specificity and exhibit an EC50 that is not detectable in receptor binding studies. These molecules have mutations in the D helix of the IL-21 molecule, and can be used to inhibit the activity of IL-21 with its cognate receptor.