摘要 |
The present invention provides a protein having an A chain of a ricin-like toxin, a B chain of a ricin-like toxin and a heterologous linker amino acid sequence, linking the A and B chains. The linker sequence contains a cleavage recognition site for a retroviral protease such as HIV or an HTLV protease. The invention also relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding the protein and to expression vectors incorporating the nucleic acid molecule. Also provided is a method of inhibiting or destroying mammalian cells infected with a retrovirus utilizing the proteins of the invention; and pharmaceutical compositions for treating HIV infections and human T-cell leukemias involving HTLV.
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