SITE-SPECIFIC ANTIBODY-MEDIATED ACTIVATION OF PROAPOPTOTIC CYTOKINES: AMAIZe (ANTIBODY-MEDIATED APOPTOSIS INDUCING CYTOKINES)

摘要

Subject matter of the invention are antibody-cytokine fusion proteins having proapoptotic and immune modulating properties, but wherein the cytokine moiety a priori has a bioactivity which is very low or restricted to certain receptor subtypes. These reagent exert their full biological activity via the corresponding cytokine receptor(s) only after antibody-mediated binding of the fusion protein to a specific cell membrane-expressed target molecule. By suitable choice of the antibody specificity, the cytokine activity is directed to the tissue, e.g. tumour tissue, to be treated, and a therapeutic agent can be produced being specifically designed/optimised for the respective indication/tumour entity.

主权项

1. A polypeptide comprising:
(i) a segment (1) comprising biological activity for a specific target molecule; (ii) N-terminal of segment (1) a segment (2) comprising a peptide linker; and (iii) a segment (3) comprising an antibody or a fragment thereof that selectively recognizes a specific target molecule on a cell surface, wherein the polypeptide has no or limited biological activity without site-specific or selective binding of segment (3) to the specific target molecule on the cell surface.