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 signalling 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 signalling pathway in the cell, whereby the cell may be induced to carry out various functions relating to the signalling pathway. A wide variety of extracellular domains may be employed as receptors, where such domains may be naturally occurring or synthetic.