HETERO-OLIGOMERIC COMPOUNDS DERIVED FROM THE TNF CYTOKINE SUPERFAMILY AND THEIR USE

摘要

The invention relates to a method to form artificial, hetero-oligomeric complexes of proteins that do normally occur in homo-oligomeric complexes. Said hetero-oligomeric complexes do have a biological activity that is similar or identical to the activity of the homo-oligomeric complexes.The current invention also relates to a method to use said hetero-oligomeric complexes to screen for compounds that can stabilize said hetero-oligomeric complexes, or to screen for compounds that dissociate said hetero-oligomeric complexes into monomers, which are not biologically active, or show a biological activity, which is clearly distinct from that of the hetero-oligomeric complexes, or to screen for compounds that inhibit the oligomerisation or reoligomerisation of monomers in oligomeric complexes.Furthermore, the invention relates to pharmaceutical compositions comprising said compounds.