Novel Imidazoline receptor homologs

A substantially purified IMRRP1b polypeptide consisting of amino acid sequence SEQ ID NO:

• 4.

A substantially purified IMRRP1 polypeptide consisting of amino acid sequence SEQ ID NO:

• 3, wherein the amino acid sequence differs from SEQ ID NO:
• 3 by conservative substitutions.

A substantially purified IMRRP1b polypeptide consisting of amino acid sequence SEQ ID NO:

• 4, wherein the amino acid sequence differs from SEQ ID NO:
• 4 by conservative substitutions.

A substantially purified IMRRP1 polypeptide encoded by a polynucleotide having nucleic acid sequence SEQ ID NO:

• 1.

A substantially purified IMRRP1b polypeptide encoded by a polynucleotide having nucleic acid sequence SEQ ID NO:

• 2.

A pharmaceutical composition comprising substantially purified IMRRP1 or substantially purified IMRRP1b or a fragment thereof and a pharmaceutically acceptable excipient.

An isolated and purified polynucleotide encoding an IMRRP1 polypeptide or fragment thereof consisting of amino acid sequence SEQ ID NO:

• 3.

An isolated and purified polynucleotide encoding an IMRRP1b polypeptide or fragment thereof consisting of amino acid sequence SEQ ID NO:

• 4.

An isolated polynucleotide comprising a nucleic acid sequence having:

• (a) SEQ ID NO:
• 1, (b) a nucleic acid sequence degenerate from SEQ ID NO:
• 1 as a result of the genetic code, or a nucleic acid sequence complementary to either (a) or (b).

An isolated polynucleotide comprising a nucleic acid sequence having:

• (a) SEQ ID NO:
• 2, (b) a nucleic acid sequence degenerate from SEQ ID NO:
• 2 as a result of the genetic code, or a nucleic acid sequence complementary to either (a) or (b).

A hybridization probe or primer comprising an oligonucleotide or polynucleotide of a sequence capable of hybridizing with a polynucleotide of SEQ ID NO:

• 1 or 2 under moderate to high stringency conditions characterized in that the sequence comprises 10 or more contiguous bases.

A method for detecting IMRRP1 or IMRRP1b polypeptides or antigenic fragments thereof in a sample, comprising:

• (a) contacting the sample with an antibody specific for IMRRP1 or IMRRP1b polypeptides or antigenic fragment thereof under conditions in which an antigen-antibody complex can form between the antibody and the IMRRP1 or IMRRP1b polypeptides or antigenic fragment thereof in the sample;
• and
• (b) detecting an antigen-antibody complex formed in step (a), wherein detection of the complex indicates the presence of the IMRRP1 or IMRRP1b polypeptides or antigenic fragments thereof in the sample.

A method of identifying candidate ligands which bind to an IMRRP1 or IMRRP1b polypeptide comprising:

• (a) contacting a test compound with IMRRP1 or IMRRP1b polypeptide or ligand binding portion thereof,
• (b) selecting as candidate ligands those test compounds which bind to IMRRP1 or IMRRP1b or ligand binding portion thereof.