Disclosed is a isolated antibody, or an antigen-binding fragment thereof, that binds to IL-1&bgr, comprising (i) a heavy chain variable region comprising the VHCDR1 region set forth in SEQ ID NO:3 (DVYTVT), the VHCDR2 region set forth in SEQ ID NO:4 (YIWSGGSASYASWAKG), and the VHCDR3 region set forth SEQ ID NO:5 (RVKMISNIETFDP) and (ii) a light chain variable region comprising the VLCDR1 region set forth in SEQ ID NO:6 (QASERIYSGLA), the VLCDR2 region set forth in SEQ ID NO:7 (RASTLAS), and the VLCDR3 region set forth in SEQ ID NO: 8 (HQGVSSSDIDNV) or a variant of said antibody, or an antigen-binding fragment thereof, comprising heavy and light chain variable regions identical to the heavy and light chain variable regions of (i) and (ii) except for up to 2 amino acid substitutions in said CDR regions.
