COMPOSITIONS AIMED AT THE SOLUBLE EXTRACELLULAR DOMAIN OF E-CADGERIN AND RELATED METHODS FOR TREATING ONCOLOGICAL DISEASES

摘要

1. A method of treating a patient with an oncological disease, comprising administering to the patient a therapeutically effective amount of an agent that specifically targets one or more of the second, third, fourth or fifth subdomains (EC2, ECZ, EC4 and EC5, respectively) of soluble E-cadherin (sEcad ), but not on the first subdomain (EC1) sEcad. 2. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that the agent specifically targets EC4 and / or EC5.3. The method of claim 2, wherein the agent specifically targets EC4.4. The method of claim 2, wherein the agent specifically targets EC5.5. The method of claim 1, wherein the agent is a framework protein. The method of claim 5, wherein the scaffold protein is an antibody or fragment thereof that specifically binds to an epitope containing amino acid residues in one or more of the subdomains of EC2, EC3, EC4 and EC5 of the sEcad protein, but not in the EC1 sEcad subdomain .7. A method according to claim 6, characterized in that the antibody is a humanized, chimeric or human antibody. The method of claim 6, wherein the antibody is a single chain antibody. The method of claim 6, wherein the antibody is a monoclonal or polyclonal antibody. The method of claim 6, wherein the antibody is a class G immunoglobulin (IgG) or a class M immunoglobulin (IgM). A method according to claim 1, characterized in that the agent contains a detectable label. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that the agent destroys cancer cells expressing E-cadherin and does not kill cancer cells. The method according to p. 12, characterized in that the agent destroys the malignant cells