Methods for treatment of asthmatic disorders
AssigneeBundesrepublik Deutschland
InventorRichard Kroczek
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Abstract
The present invention relates to methods and compositions for the prevention and treatment and prevention of immune system disorders, including cancer, AIDS, asthmatic disorders, autoimmune diseases, organ transplant rejection and chronic viral diseases such as HCV or HBV infections. The therapeutic methods of the invention comprise administering molecules that modulate the activity of 8F4, thereby modulating costimulation of T cells. The present invention further provides monoclonal antibodies against the 8F4 molecule and hybridoma cells which produce said monoclonal antibodies. Pharmaceutical compositions comprising molecules that modulate the activity of 8F4 are also provided.
Claims52
A costimulating molecule
- a) having the biological activity of costimulation of T cells,
- b) which occurs on activated CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes but not resting or activated B cells, granulocytes, monocytes, NK cells or dendritic cells, and
- c) which has two polypeptide chains, the said molecule having a molecular weight of about 55 to 60 kDa determined in a nonreducing SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, and the two polypeptide chains of the said molecule having a molecular weight of about 27 kDa and about 29 kDa measured in a reducing SDS polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis.
A costimulating molecule having the biological activity of costimulation of T cells comprising an amino-acid sequence which shows at least 40% homology with the sequence comprising 199 amino acids in FIG. 15 (SEQ ID NO:2), or a biologically active fragment or an analogue thereof.
A DNA sequence encoding a costimulating molecule having the biological activity of costimulation of T cells, the sequence being selected from the group consisting of:
- a) the DNA sequence shown in SEQ ID NO:1 (FIG. 16) and its complementary strand
- b) DNA sequence hybridizing with the sequences in (a) and
- c) DNA sequences which, because of the degeneracy of the genetic code, hybridize with the sequences in (a) and (b).
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.