Novel family of beta sub-unit proteins from a voltage-gated sodium channel, nucleic acids encoding them and therapeutic or diagnostic uses thereof

摘要

The present invention relates to a novel family of beta sub-unit proteins from a voltage-gated sodium channel, and particularly the human and the rat beta sub-units which have been collectively identified as beta3, in view of their close structural relationship. The invention also deals with the use of the beta3 sub-unit polypeptide or a fragment thereof as well as of the nucleic acids encoding same for therapeutic, diagnostic and screening purposes.