Therapeutic methods and compositions based on serrate proteins and nucleic acids

摘要

The present invention relates to pharmaceutical compositions comprising a fragment of Serrate protein or a derivative or analog of said fragment, or comprising a derivative or analog of a Serrate protein, or comprising a protein comprising such a fragment, derivative or analog, the fragments, derivatives, analogs and proteins being characterized by the ability in vitro, when expressed on the surface of a first cell, to bind to a Notch protein expressed on the surface of a second cell. The invention also relates to chimeric proteins comprising said Serrate fragments joined via a peptide bond to a protein sequence of a protein different from the Serrate protein, and to nucleic acids encoding said fragments of a Serrate protein, and encoding said chimeric proteins. According to the invention, said fragments, derivatives, analogs, and proteins, said chimeric proteins and said nucleic acids may be used as a medicament, for example, in treating or preventing malignancy in a subject.