The invention relates to methods for the stabilisation of cytokines and to
cytokines generated by such methods. The methods of the invention involve
mutating the amino acid sequence of a cytokine so as to remove
solvent-exposed hydrophobic residues, and/or mutating the amino acid
sequence of the cytokine so as to stabilise one or more secondary
structure elements in the molecule. These steps have the effect of
destabilsing intermediates that are formed during the folding process,
relative to the stability of the cytokine in its naturally folded state,
so increasing the yield of the cytokine as produced in vitro.