A polypeptide useful for the alleviation, treatment and diagnosis of autoimmune diseases, particularly arthritis

摘要

A Mycobacterium bovis BCG polypeptide having a molecular mass of about 64 kD was found to be useful as an immunogen inducing resistance to autoimmune arthritis and similar autoimmune diseases. The invention relates to the use of this polypeptide for the preparation of compositions for the alleviation, treatment and diagnosis of autoimmune diseases, especially arthritis conditions. The invention also relates to a polypeptide comprising the epitope essential for this activity. The polypeptide has the formula CHEM Further, the invention relates to polypeptide showing sequential homology with said polypeptide, and to derivatives and multimers thereof. Also, microorganisms expressing the polypeptides either as such or as part of a fusion protein or as a multimer, form part of the invention. Finally, the invention relates to pharmaceutical compositions, diagnostic compositions and test kits comprising a compound according to the invention.