New nucleic acid encoding hemocyanin, useful for gene therapy of tumors and for recombinant production of fusion proteins for vaccination

摘要

Nucleic acid (I) containing a sequence that encodes hemocyanin (II), a domain of (I) or its fragment with the immunological properties of at least one domain of (II), are new. Nucleic acid (I) is: (1) any of 67 sequences reproduced (as RNA or DNA); (2) a sequence that hybridizes with the complementary strand of (i) and encodes a polypeptide (IIa) with the immunological properties of at least one domain of (II); (3) equivalent within the degeneracy of the genetic code to (i) or (ii) and encodes (IIa); (4) hydridizes to any of (i)-(iii) and has a complement that encodes (IIa), (v) is at least 60% homologous with (i); (5) a variant of (i)-(iv) with additions, deletions, insertions or inversions and encodes (IIa), or (6) a combination of any of (i)-(vi) Independent claims are also included for the following: (a) constructs comprising (I); (b) prokaryotic or eukaryotic host cells containing and expressing the construct of (a); (c) a method of producing hemocyanin polypeptides by expressing (I) or the construct of (a) in host cells; (d) hemocyanin polypeptides (III) that include an amino acid sequence encoded by one or more (I); (e) recombinant (III) produced by method (c), and its modified forms; (f) pharmaceutical compositions containing (I) and/or the construct of (a), or (III), plus an additive; (g) liposomes containing (I), the construct of (a) and/or (III); (h) antibodies (Ab) produced by immunization with recombinant (III); and (i) a screening method for identifying tumor-specific DNA in a cell.