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OwnerWolfgang Knecht, Birgitte Munch-Petersen +1inventors
InventorsWolfgang Knecht, Birgitte Munch-Petersen, Jure Piskur
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This invention relates to novel plant thymidine kinases and their use in gene therapy. More specifically the invention provides novel thymidine kinases derived from tomato. In further aspects the invention provides novel polynucleotides encoding the tomato thymidine kinase of mutant thereof, vector constructs comprising the polynucleotide, host cells carrying the polynucleotide or vector, methods of sensitising cells to prodrugs, methods of inhibiting pathogenic agents in warm-blooded animals, methods for biocontrol of plants, methods of synthesizing monophosphates and pharmaceutical compositions comprising the plant thymidine kinases of the invention. In a preferred embodiment the invention provides a unique combination of a plant thymidine kinase and the nucleoside analog nucleoside analog AZT (3′-azido-3′-deoxythymidine) to treat abnormal cell growth.
A vector comprising a polynucleotide coding sequence, operably linked to a promoter functional in mammalian cells, said polynucleotide coding sequence encoding a polypeptide comprising an amino acid sequence which (a) is at least 90% identical to SEQ ID NO:4, with the percentage identity determined over the entire length of SEQ ID NO:4, or (b) differs from SEQ ID NO:4 solely by a C-terminal deletion of 1-30 amino acid residues and/or N-terminal deletion of 22 amino acid residues, wherein said polypeptide has thymidine kinase enzyme activity.
A vector comprising a polynucleotide coding sequence, operably linked to a promoter functional in mammalian cells, said polynucleotide coding sequence encodes a polypeptide comprising an amino acid sequence which is at least 90% identical to SEQ ID NO:5, with the percentage identity determined over the entire length of SEQ ID NO:5, wherein said polypeptide has thymidine kinase enzyme activity.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.