Selective local activation of members of the TNF ligand family using systematically inactive, non-antibody TNF ligand fusion proteins

摘要

New polypeptide (I) comprises a segment (1) that contains a binding domain (BD) for a cell-surface molecule; a peptide linker (2) and a segment (3) that contains a fragment of a member (I) of the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) ligand family that, alone, is inactive or has limited activity. BD is not derived from an immunoglobulin and (3) becomes fully active only after binding of (1) to a cell-surface molecule. Independent claims are also included for the following: (1) nucleic acid construct (NAC) that contains a sequence (II) encoding (I); (2) vector that contains NAC; (3) host cell containing NAC and/or the vector of (2); and (4) isolating (I).