CHIMERIC CHAINS FOR RECEPTOR-ASSOCIATED SIGNAL TRANSDUCTION PATHWAYS

摘要

Chimeric proteins and DNA sequences encoding chimeric proteins are provided where the chimeric proteins are characterized by an extracellular domain capable of binding to a ligand, a transmembrane domain and a cytoplasmic domain capable of activating a signaling pathway, The extracellular domain and cytoplasmic domain are not naturally found together. Binding of ligand to the extracellular domain results in transduction of a signal and activation of a signaling pathway in the cell, whereby the cell may be induced to carry out various functions relating to the signaling pathway. A wide variety of extracellular domains may be employed as receptors, where such domains may be naturally occuring or synthetic.