Inhibition of angiogenesis by delivery of nucleic acids encoding anti-angiogenic polypeptides

Abstract

This invention provides polypeptides having anti-angiogenic activity and nucleic acids that encode these polypeptides. The anti-angiogenic polypeptides include at least kringles 1-3 of plasminogen. The invention also provides methods of using the polypeptides and nucleic acids for inhibiting angiogenesis and other conditions characterized by undesirable endothelial cell proliferation.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention pertains to the field of inhibition of angiogenesis by delivery of angiogenesis inhibitors derived from plasminogen. The angiogenesis inhibitors are delivered in polypeptide or nucleic acid form.

2. Background

Angiogenesis, the process by which new blood vessels are formed, is essential for embryonic development and other normal physiological processes such as wound healing and formation of the corpus luteum, endometrium and placenta. However, when angiogenesis occurs at an inappropriate time or location, numerous disease states and other undesirable conditions sometimes arise. For example, angiogenesis is involved in other diseases and conditions, including arthritis and atherosclerotic plaques, diabetic retinopathy, neovascular glaucoma, trachoma and corneal graft neovascularization, psoriasis, scleroderma, hemangioma and hypertrophic scarring, vascular adhesions and angiofibroma.

Angiogenesis is also essential for solid tumor growth and metastasis. Folkman (1990) J. Nat'l. Cancer Inst. 82: 4-6; Kim et al. (1993) Nature 362: 841-844; Hori et al. (1991) Cancer Res. 51: 6180-6184; Millauer et al. (1994) Nature 367: 576-579; Sim et al. (1997) Cancer Res. 57: 1329-1334. Tumor cells are believed to cause a local disruption of the delicate balance that normally exists between angiogenesis inhibitors and stimulators. According to this model, by producing angiogenesis stimulators, tumors cause a local increase in the ratio of stimulators to inhibitors, which induce the formation of new blood vessels that carry oxygen and nutrients to the growing tumor. These factors include vascular permeability factor/vascular endothelial cell growth factor (VPF/VEGF), basic and acidic fibroblast growth factors, interleukin-1, hepatocyte growth/scatter factor (HGF) and others. See, e.g., O'Reilly (1997) Regulation of Angiogenesis, Goldberg & Rosen, Eds., Birkhauser Verlag, Basel, pp. 273-294.

Angiostatin, which is an angiogenesis inhibitor, is a naturally-occurring internal cleavage product of plasminogen. Angiostatin has been estimated to have a molecular weight of between approximately 38 kilodaltons and 45 kilodaltons as determined by reducing polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. However, the precise boundaries of the angiostatin fragment of plasminogen have not been definitively identified. The angiostatin fragment of plasminogen was reported to begin at about amino acid 98 of a murine plasminogen polypeptide, and at either amino acid 97 or 99 of an intact human plasminogen polypeptide.

Human plasminogen has five characteristic protein domains called “kringle structures.” Murine plasminogen has four or five kringle structures; it is unclear whether the amino acid sequence of murine plasminogen corresponding to the second kringle structure of murine plasminogen forms a kringle structure as is present in human plasminogen. Based on the estimated molecular weight, human angiostatin was predicted to include kringles 1-3 and a part of kringle 4 of the five plasminogen kringle region (see, e.g., Robbins, K. C. (1987) Hemostasis and Thrombosis, Basic Principles and Practice, 2nd Edition, ed. Colman, R. W. et al., J. B. Lippincott Company, pp. 340-357). Each kringle region of the plasminogen molecule has approximately eighty amino acids and three disulfide bonds. The complete sequence of plasminogen contributes the signal peptide for secretion and contains sites for protease cleavage to liberate angiostatin once plasminogen is secreted.

Recent research indicates tumor growth is dependent on angiogenesis and that inhibiting angiogenesis can slow tumor growth. Kim et al. (1993) Nature 362: 841-844; Weidner et al. (1991) New Engl. J. Med. 324: 1-7. Therefore, a need exists for compounds and methods for inhibiting undesirable angiogenesis. Such methods and compounds will find use not only in cancer therapy, but also for treating other angiogenesis-associated conditions. The present invention fulfills these and other needs.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides methods of delivering anti-angiogenic activity to a mammal. In one embodiment, the method involves introducing into cells of the mammal a nucleic acid that includes a polynucleotide sequence encoding a polypeptide which comprises an amino acid sequence substantially identical to at least three kringle domains of native plasminogen. The anti-angiogenic polypeptides generally have an amino acid sequence extending from about amino acid 97 to at least about amino acid 462 of plasminogen.

Also provided by the invention are methods of inhibiting angiogenesis in a mammal by administering to the mammal a nucleic acid comprising a polynucleotide sequence encoding an anti-angiogenic polypeptide which comprises at least three kringle domains of plasminogen. The sequence encoding the anti-angiogenic polypeptide generally is operably linked to a polynucleotide sequence encoding a signal peptide.

The invention also provides methods of treating a condition that is associated with undesirable endothelial cell proliferation. These methods involve administering to the mammal a nucleic acid comprising a polynucleotide sequence encoding an anti-angiogenic polypeptide which comprises at least three kringle domains of plasminogen. The sequence encoding the anti-angiogenic polypeptide is operably linked to a polynucleotide sequence encoding a signal peptide.

In another embodiment, the invention provides an isolated nucleic acid that comprises an expression cassette that includes a polynucleotide sequence encoding a signal peptide operably linked to a polynucleotide sequence encoding an anti-angiogenic polypeptide. The anti-angiogenic polypeptide includes at least kringles 1-3 of plasminogen.

Also provided by the invention are isolated anti-angiogenic polypeptides which include at least three kringle regions of plasminogen. In a preferred embodiment, the polypeptides include kringles 1-4 of human plasminogen and are less than full length plasminogen.

The invention also provides endothelial cells and tumor cells that contain a recombinant expression cassette which includes a polynucleotide sequence encoding a signal peptide operably linked to a polynucleotide sequence encoding an anti-angiogenic polypeptide. The anti-angiogenic polypeptides include at least three kringles of plasminogen, preferably kringles 1-4.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows the nucleotide (SEQ ID NO:1) and amino acid (SEQ ID NO:2) sequences of a gene for expression and secretion of an anti-angiogenic polypeptide that has kringles 1-4 of mouse plasminogen. The chimeric gene includes a nucleotide sequence that encodes an IgK signal sequence (amino acids 1-23), followed by an anti-angiogenic polypeptide coding region (amino acids 24-388) in which codon usage is optimized for expression in mouse cells. The anti-angiogenic polypeptide (AngP) coding region corresponds to that of amino acid 97 to 462 (inclusive) of the murine plasminogen polypeptide, where amino acid number one is the first amino acid (methionine) of the plasminogen signal peptide. This coding region is followed by an in-frame nucleotide sequence that codes for an HA tag for protein tracking (amino acids 389-398). Unique restriction sites at both ends of the gene facilitate subcloning into expression vectors.

FIG. 2 shows a comparison of the amino acid sequences of mouse (SEQ ID NO:3) and human (SEQ ID NO:5) plasminogen. Arrows indicate the beginning of the AngP polypeptide and the end of kringles 4 and 5. The mouse amino acid sequence shown is that encoded by the gene construct shown in FIG. 1 . Consensus plasminogen amino acid sequence=SEQ ID NO:9.

FIG. 3 shows the nucleotide sequence of human plasminogen. Nucleotides that encode the native plasminogen signal sequence are underlined, and the positions of the start of the anti-angiogenic polypeptide AngP, and codons for amino acids 462 and 566, are indicated.

FIG. 4A shows a restriction map of a DNA insert used to express a murine anti-angiogenic polypeptide in mammalian cells. The polypeptide coding region is linked at its 5′ end to nucleic acid sequences that encode an IgK signal peptide, and at its 3′ end to a nucleic acid sequence that encodes an HA tag (YPYDVPDYA; SEQ ID NO:7). Upstream of the coding sequence was placed Kozak consensus sequences to improve expression. The insert was designed with the indicated EcoRI, SacII, SalI, and XbaI restriction sites for ease of cloning.

FIG. 4B shows a map of the anti-angiogenic polypeptide expression vector pMB249, which contains the insert shown in FIG. 4 A.

FIG. 5 shows the amino acid sequence of human plasminogen (SEQ ID NO:5). The amino termini of the kringle consensus sequences for kringles 1-4 are indicated by solid triangles.

FIG. 6 shows the results of a western immunoblot analysis with an antibody against the HA tag of purified AngP polypeptide expressed using the gene shown in FIG. 1 . The gene was subcloned into a mammalian expression vector under the control of a cytomegalovirus (CMV) enhancer and promoter and transfected into 293 cells. AngP polypeptide was purified from the conditioned medium of the transfected 293 cells by anti-HA affinity chromatography followed by elution with HA peptide. Lane 1 is the purified anti-angiogenic polypeptide control; lane 2 is conditioned medium from 293 cells transfected with an expression vector without the gene encoding the anti-angiogenic polypeptide; lane 3 is conditioned medium from 293 cells transfected with anti-angiogenic polypeptide-encoding vector; and lane 4 is conditioned medium from non-transfected 293 cells.

FIG. 7 shows the growth inhibition at day 2 of human lung microvascular endothelial cells (HMVEC) in the presence of AngP polypeptide purified from 293 cells transfected with pMB249, as compared to mock-purified medium from 293 cells that lack the plasmid, and to unconditioned medium. “0”: no proliferation-stimulating agent added; “bFGF”: 80 ng/ml.

FIG. 8 shows the growth inhibition at day 2 of mouse primary endothelial cells (MBMEC) transfected with the AngP expression vector pMB249 or with an empty vector (75.6) in the presence of 20% fetal bovine serum.

FIG. 9 shows the growth inhibition of MBMEC transfected with an AngP gene (“angiostatin”) in the presence of bFGF and 10% fetal bovine serum at day 4.

FIG. 10 shows growth inhibition of MBMEC transfected with an anti-angiogenic polypeptide-encoding gene or with an empty vector at days 2, 3 and 4, in the presence of 20% fetal bovine serum.

FIG. 11 shows the number of lung metastases in mice on day 17 after intravenous implant of Lewis lung tumor cells. The first group is the no treatment control group; the second is the empty vector control group, and the third is the group receiving DNA encoding AngP.

FIG. 12 shows the mean metastasis diameter (mm) in mice on day 17 after intravenous implant of Lewis lung tumor cells. The first group is the no treatment control group; the second is the empty vector control group, and the third is the group receiving DNA encoding AngP.

FIG. 13 shows the lung weight of mice on day 17 after intravenous implant of Lewis lung tumor cells. The first group is the no treatment control group, the second is the empty vector control group, and the third is the group receiving DNA encoding AngP.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Definitions

As used herein, the term “angiogenesis” means the generation of new blood vessels into a tissue or organ.

“Metastasis” refers to the process by which tumor cells are spread to distant parts of the body. This term is also used herein to refer to a tumor that develops through the metastatic process.

“Antimetastatic activity” refers the ability of a compound or treatment to prevent or greatly reduce the extent or size of tumor cell metastasis.

The term “isolated” is meant to refer to material which is substantially or essentially free from components which normally accompany the enzyme as found in its native state. Thus, the polypeptides and nucleic acids of the invention, when in isolated form, do not include materials normally associated with their in situ environment. Typically, isolated proteins or nucleic acids of the invention are at least about 80% pure, usually at least about 90%, and preferably at least about 95% pure as measured by band intensity on a silver stained gel or other method for determining purity. Protein purity or homogeneity can be indicated by a number of means well known in the art, such as polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of a protein sample, followed by visualization upon staining. For certain purposes high resolution will be needed and HPLC or a similar means for purification utilized. With respect to nucleic acids, “isolated” includes nucleic acid sequences linked to vector sequences, e.g., in the context of a plasmid expression vector.

As used herein, the term “kringle” refers to a protein domain which typically has a β-sheet, disulfide-stabilized structure. A kringle domain generally includes the consensus amino acid sequence NYCRNPD (SEQ ID NO:8), or variations on this sequence which maintain the kringle secondary structure. For example, the amino terminal residue can be N, as indicated, or can be A or T. Other examples of acceptable substitutions include: substitution of F for Y at the second position of the consensus sequence; substitution of H for R at the fourth position, and substitution of G or N for D at the seventh position of the consensus sequence.

The term “nucleic acid” refers to a deoxyribonucleotide or ribonucleotide polymer in either single- or double-stranded form, and unless otherwise limited, encompasses known analogs of natural nucleotides that can function in a similar manner as naturally occurring nucleotides. Also included are molecules having naturally occurring phosphodiester linkages as well as those having non-naturally occurring linkages, e.g. for stabilization purposes. The nucleic acid may be in any physical form, e.g., linear, circular, or supercoiled.

The terms “polypeptide”, “peptide” and “protein” are used interchangeably herein to refer to a polymer of amino acid residues. The terms apply to amino acid polymers in which one or more amino acid residue is an artificial chemical analogue of a corresponding naturally occurring amino acid, as well as to naturally occurring amino acid polymers.

A “label” is a composition detectable by spectroscopic, photochemical, biochemical, immunochemical, or chemical means. For example, useful labels include 32 P, fluorescent dyes, electron-dense reagents, enzymes (e.g., as commonly used in an ELISA), biotin, dioxigenin, or haptens and proteins for which antisera or monoclonal antibodies are available (e.g., the peptide of SEQ ID NO:2 can be made detectable, e.g. by incorporating a radio-label into the peptide, and used to detect antibodies specifically reactive with the peptide).

“Subsequence” refers to a sequence of nucleic acids or amino acids that comprise a part of a longer sequence of nucleic acids or amino acids (e.g., polypeptide) respectively.

A “heterologous sequence” or a “heterologous nucleic acid”, as used herein, is one that originates from a source foreign to the particular host cell, or, if from the same source, is modified from its original form.

The term “operably linked” refers to a functional linkage between a nucleic acid expression control sequence (such as a promoter, enhancer, signal sequence, or array of transcription factor binding sites) and a second nucleic acid sequence, wherein the expression control sequence affects transcription and/or translation of the nucleic acid corresponding to the second sequence or post-translational modification of an encoded polypeptide.

The term “recombinant” when used with reference to a cell, or nucleic acid, or vector, indicates that the cell, or nucleic acid, or vector, has been modified by the introduction of a heterologous nucleic acid or the alteration of a native nucleic acid, or that the cell is derived from a cell so modified. Thus, for example, recombinant cells express genes that are not found within the native (non-recombinant) form of the cell or express native genes that are otherwise abnormally expressed, under expressed or not expressed at all.

A “recombinant expression cassette” or simply an “expression cassette” is a nucleic acid construct, generated recombinantly or synthetically, with nucleic acid elements that are capable of affecting expression of a structural gene in hosts compatible with such sequences. Expression cassettes include at least promoters and optionally, transcription termination signals. Typically, the recombinant expression cassette includes a nucleic acid to be transcribed (e.g., a nucleic acid encoding a desired polypeptide), and a promoter. Additional factors necessary or helpful in effecting expression may also be used as described herein. For example, an expression cassette can also include nucleotide sequences that encode a signal sequence that directs secretion of an expressed protein from the host cell. Transcription termination signals, enhancers, and other nucleic acid sequences that influence gene expression, can also be included in an expression cassette.

The term “identical” in the context of two nucleic acids or polypeptide sequences refers to the residues in the two sequences which are the same when aligned for maximum correspondence. Optimal alignment of sequences for comparison can be conducted, e.g., by the local homology algorithm of Smith and Waterman (1981) Adv. Appl. Math. 2: 482, by the homology alignment algorithm of Needleman and Wunsch (1970) J. Mol. Biol. 48:443, by the search for similarity method of Pearson and Lipman (1988) Proc. Nat'l. Acad. Sci. USA 85: 2444, by computerized implementations of these algorithms (GAP, BESTFIT, FASTA, and TFASTA in the Wisconsin Genetics Software Package, Genetics Computer Group, 575 Science Dr., Madison, Wis.), or by inspection.

An additional algorithm that is suitable for determining sequence similarity is the BLAST algorithm, which is described in Altschul et al. (1990) J. Mol. Biol. 215: 403-410. Software for performing BLAST analyses is publicly available through the National Center for Biotechnology Information (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/). This algorithm involves first identifying high scoring sequence pairs (HSPs) by identifying short words of length W in the query sequence that either match or satisfy some positive-valued threshold score T when aligned with a word of the same length in a database sequence. T is referred to as the neighborhood word score threshold (Altschul et al, supra.). These initial neighborhood word hits act as seeds for initiating searches to find longer HSPs containing them. The word hits are extended in both directions along each sequence for as far as the cumulative alignment score can be increased. Extension of the word hits in each direction are halted when: the cumulative alignment score falls off by the quantity X from its maximum achieved value; the cumulative score goes to zero or below, due to the accumulation of one or more negative-scoring residue alignments; or the end of either sequence is reached. The BLAST algorithm parameters W, T and X determine the sensitivity and speed of the alignment. The BLAST program uses as defaults a word length (W) of 11, the BLOSUM62 scoring matrix (see Henikoff and Henikoff (1992) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 89: 10915-10919) alignments (B) of 50, expectation (E) of 10, M=5, N=−4, and a comparison of both strands.

The BLAST algorithm performs a statistical analysis of the similarity between two sequences; see, e.g., Karlin and Altschul (1993) Proc. Nat'l. Acad. Sci. USA 90: 5873-5787. One measure of similarity provided by the BLAST algorithm is the smallest sum probability (P(N)), which provides an indication of the probability by which a match between two nucleotide or amino acid sequences would occur by chance. For example, a nucleic acid is considered similar to a gene or cDNA encoding an anti-angiogenic polypeptide if the smallest sum probability in a comparison of the test nucleic acid to an anti-angiogenic polypeptide-encoding nucleic acid is less than about 1, preferably less than about 0.1, more preferably less than about 0.01, and most preferably less than about 0.001.

The term “substantial identity” or “substantial similarity” in the context of a polypeptide indicates that a polypeptides comprises a sequence with at least 70% sequence identity to a reference sequence, or preferably 80%, or more preferably 85% sequence identity to the reference sequence, or most preferably 90% identity over a comparison window of about 10-20 amino acid residues. An indication that two polypeptide sequences are substantially identical is that one peptide is immunologically reactive with antibodies raised against the second peptide. Thus, a polypeptide is substantially identical to a second polypeptide, for example, where the two peptides differ only by a conservative substitution.

An indication that two nucleic acid sequences are substantially identical is that the polypeptide which the first nucleic acid encodes is immunologically cross reactive with the polypeptide encoded by the second nucleic acid. Typically, two nucleic acids that are substantially identical will have at least about 70% sequence identity, more preferably at least about 80%, and most preferably at least about 90% or 95% sequence identity.

Another indication that two nucleic acid sequences are substantially identical is that the two molecules hybridize to each other under stringent conditions.

“Bind(s) substantially” refers to complementary hybridization between a probe nucleic acid and a target nucleic acid and embraces minor mismatches that can be accommodated by reducing the stringency of the hybridization conditions to achieve the desired detection of the target polynucleotide sequence.

The phrase “hybridizing specifically to”, refers to the binding, duplexing, or hybridizing of a molecule only to a particular nucleotide sequence under stringent conditions when that sequence is present in a complex mixture (e.g., total cellular) of DNA or RNA. The term “stringent conditions” refers to conditions under which a probe will hybridize to its target subsequence, but to no other sequences. Stringent conditions are sequence-dependent and will be different in different circumstances. Longer sequences are able to hybridize specifically at higher temperatures. Generally, stringent conditions are selected to be about 5° C. lower than the thermal melting point (Tm) for the specific sequence at a defined ionic strength and pH. The Tm is the temperature (under defined ionic strength, pH, and nucleic acid concentration) at which 50% of the probes complementary to the target sequence hybridize to the target sequence at equilibrium. (As the target sequences are generally present in excess, at Tm, 50% of the probes are occupied at equilibrium). Typically, stringent conditions will be those in which the salt concentration is less than about 1.0 M sodium ion, typically about 0.01 to 1.0 M sodium ion concentration (or other salts) at pH 7.0 to 8.3 and the temperature is at least about 30° C. for short probes (e.g., 10 to 50 nucleotides) and at least about 60° C. for long probes (e.g., greater than 50 nucleotides). Stringent conditions may also be achieved at lower temperatures with the addition of destabilizing agents such as formamide.

The phrases “specifically binds to a protein” or “specifically immunoreactive with”, when referring to an antibody refers to a binding reaction which is determinative of the presence of the protein in the presence of a heterogeneous population of proteins and other biologics. Thus, under designated immunoassay conditions, the specified antibodies bind preferentially to a particular protein and do not bind in a significant amount to other proteins present in the sample. Specific binding to a protein under such conditions requires an antibody that is selected for its specificity for a particular protein. A variety of immunoassay formats may be used to select antibodies specifically immunoreactive with a particular protein. For example, solid-phase ELISA immunoassays are routinely used to select monoclonal antibodies specifically immunoreactive with a protein. See Harlow and Lane (1988) Antibodies, A Laboratory Manual , Cold Spring Harbor Publications, New York, for a description of immunoassay formats and conditions that can be used to determine specific immunoreactivity. For determination of specific binding of an antibody against an anti-angiogenic polypeptide, an immunoprecipitation assay is preferred. Under appropriate conditions, an antibody that specifically binds to an anti-angiogenic polypeptide will immunoprecipitate an anti-angiogenic polypeptide, but not other polypeptides.

A “conservative substitution”, when describing a protein refers to a change in the amino acid composition of the protein that does not substantially alter the protein's activity. Thus, “conservatively modified variations” of a particular amino acid sequence refers to amino acid substitutions of those amino acids that are not critical for protein activity or substitution of amino acids with other amino acids having similar properties (e.g., acidic, basic, positively or negatively charged, polar or non-polar, etc.) such that the substitutions of even critical amino acids do not substantially alter activity. Conservative substitution tables providing functionally similar amino acids are well known in the art. The following six groups each contain amino acids that are conservative substitutions for one another:

1) Alanine (A), Serine (S), Threonine (T);

2) Aspartic acid (D), Glutamic acid (E);

3) Asparagine (N), Glutamine (Q);

4) Arginine (R), Lysine (K);

5) Isoleucine (I), Leucine (L), Methionine (M), Valine (V); and

6) Phenylalanine (F), Tyrosine (Y), Tryptophan (W).

See also, Creighton (1984) Proteins , W.H. Freeman and Company. In addition, individual substitutions, deletions or additions which alter, add or delete a single amino acid or a small percentage of amino acids in an encoded sequence are also “conservatively modified variations.”

With respect to nucleic acids, conservative substitution of bases include those that do not change the amino acid sequence of the encoded polypeptide, due to the redundancy of the genetic code, or result in conservative amino acid substitutions. The native nucleic acid sequence may be modified to optimize codon usage when the gene is expressed in the target cell type, e.g., human, insect, yeast, or bacterial.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The claimed invention provides compounds that are capable of inhibiting angiogenesis, vasculogenesis, and other conditions associated with endothelial cell proliferation. The compounds include nucleic acids that encode recombinant polypeptides which have anti-angiogenic and endothelial cell proliferation-inhibiting activity. Also provided are recombinant polypeptides encoded by the nucleic acids. Because the proliferation-inhibiting activity is specific for endothelial cells and does not affect other cell types, undesired angiogenesis and endothelial cell proliferation is inhibited by the compounds without adversely affecting other cells. The invention also provides methods of inhibiting angiogenesis and endothelial cell proliferation by administering these compounds to a mammal.

The anti-angiogenic polypeptides of the invention, referred to herein as “AngP,” include at least four kringle regions of plasminogen. To inhibit angiogenesis, an AngP polypeptide, or a recombinant gene encoding an AngP polypeptide may be delivered to angiogenic endothelial cells by intravenous, intraperitoneal or other administration means. By providing the recombinant anti-angiogenic construct of the invention, operably linked to sequences encoding a signal peptide, the transfected endothelial cells will express and secrete an anti-angiogenic polypeptide which inhibits angiogenesis in the local environment. Further, delivery of a polynucleotide encoding a recombinant, secreted anti-angiogenic polypeptide to endothelial cells may be more effective than providing a polypeptide directly. It is believed that the increased effectiveness of polynucleotide administration occurs because the polynucleotide causes production and secretion of anti-angiogenic polypeptide by the endothelial cells, where it may produce an increased local concentration, thereby more effectively inhibiting endothelial cell proliferation.

A. Nucleic Acids encoding Anti-Angiogenic Polypeptides

The invention provides nucleic acids that encode polypeptides which are capable of inhibiting angiogenesis or endothelial cell proliferation. The anti-angiogenic polypeptide-encoding nucleic acids can be used directly as a therapeutic or prophylactic agent by transfection of mammalian cells whereby recombinant anti-angiogenic polypeptide is produced and secreted by transfected cells in vivo. Alternatively, the nucleic acids can be used as described herein to produce recombinant, secreted anti-angiogenic polypeptides for administration to a mammal in need of treatment.

In a preferred embodiment, the nucleic acids of the invention include a polynucleotide sequence that encodes an anti-angiogenic polypeptide (angp) which has three, and preferably four or more kringle regions of plasminogen. Such polypeptides typically include an amino acid sequence that includes at least about 340 amino acids of a native plasminogen, or conservative substitutions thereof. Preferably, the polypeptide encoded by the polynucleotide sequence is substantially identical to a portion of a native plasminogen extending from about amino acid 97 to at least about amino acid 462 (numbered from the initial methionine of the human plasminogen signal sequence). The anti-angiogenic polypeptide encoded by the nucleic acids of the invention can include five kringle regions, extending from about amino acid 97 to about amino acid 566 of human plasminogen. Amino acid positions of corresponding plasminogens from other mammals can be determined by aligning the amino acid sequence to that of mouse or human plasminogen. A comparison of the human and mouse plasminogen amino acid sequences is presented in FIG. 2 .

The plasminogen-encoding nucleic acids of the present invention can be identical to, or substantially identical to, a subsequence of a native plasminogen-encoding nucleic acid. The native plasminogen can be that of any mammal, with human, mouse, and primate plasminogens being preferred. The amino acid sequences of human, mouse, porcine, bovine, and Rhesus monkey plasminogen are known (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,639,725). Several mammalian plasminogen nucleotide sequences are found in GenBank and other sequence databases, including mouse (GenBank Accession No. J04766; Degen et al. (1990) Genomics 8: 49-61), Rhesus monkey (Tomlinson et al. (1989) J. Biol. Chem. 264: 5957-5965), and human (GenBank Accession No. X05199; Forsgren et al. (1987) FEBS Lett. 213: 254-260; Browne et al. (1991) Fibrinolysis 5: 257-260). These nucleic acid sequences can be used directly to synthesize a nucleic acid of the invention, or can be used as probes which are used to isolate suitable nucleic acids from the respective organisms, or from related organisms that have plasminogen nucleic acids to which the known sequences hybridize.

As an example, a nucleic acid of the invention can be substantially identical to the human plasminogen nucleic acid sequence presented in SEQ ID NO:4, or a subsequence thereof. Such nucleic acids are often capable of hybridizing specifically to the nucleic acid of SEQ ID NO:4 under stringent conditions. An anti-angiogenic polypeptide expressed using the nucleic acids of the invention generally is specifically immunoreactive with a polypeptide having the amino acid sequence of a human plasminogen polypeptide such as that presented in SEQ ID NO:4 or a murine plasminogen polypeptide (SEQ ID NO:2). One can identify appropriate coding regions for the anti-angiogenic polypeptides of the invention by alignment of a subject polynucleotide with the nucleic acid sequences presented in SEQ ID NOS. 1 and 4, which allows identification of the corresponding fragment of plasminogen for each species.

It is often desirable to engineer the nucleic acids to, for example, insert or delete restriction sites to facilitate subcloning, and the like. For example, appropriate restriction sites can also be added to a nucleic acid encoding the anti-angiogenic polypeptide by site-directed mutagenesis. The nucleic acid can then cleaved with the appropriate restriction endonucleases and ligated into a vector according to standard methods. Appropriately located restriction sites can also facilitate linkage of nucleotide sequences involved in expression of the anti-angiogenic peptide. The nucleotide sequences can also be modified to, for example, incorporate codon changes that result in amino acid substitutions and/or that optimize codon usage for expression in a particular organism but do not change the amino acid sequence.

An example of an optimized nucleic acid which encodes an anti-angiogenic polypeptide of the invention is shown in FIG. 1 (SEQ ID NO:1), which sequence is optimized for expression in mouse cells. SacI and SalI restriction sites were engineered onto the 5′ and 3′ ends, respectively, of a nucleic acid encoding kringles 1-4 of murine plasminogen. A polynucleotide sequence encoding an IgK signal sequence (ETDTLLLWVLLLWVPPGSTG; SEQ ID NO:6) was then linked to the 5′ end of the nucleic acid. To the 5′ end of the signal sequence encoding region was placed a polynucleotide which has Kozak consensus sequence (GCCGCC) for optimized initiation of translation. An EcoRI site was engineered onto the 5′ end of this construct to facilitate cloning into an expression vector. At the 3′ end of the coding region for the anti-angiogenic polypeptide, a polynucleotide encoding an influenza hemagglutinin (HA) tag was inserted (amino acid sequence YPYDVPDYA; SEQ ID NO:7). This modification resulted in an additional aspartate residue between the anti-angiogenic polypeptide and the HA tag. A stop codon (TGA) followed by an additional G residue to enhance the translational stop signal was added, followed by an XbaI site to facilitate subcloning of the optimized construct. The polynucleotide sequence encoding the anti-angiogenic polypeptide was itself optimized for expression in mouse cells by making synonymous nucleotide substitutions which resulted in greater use of preferred codons for murine genes.

Thus, in one embodiment the invention provides polynucleotide sequences that are identical to, or substantially identical to, a plasminogen-encoding nucleic acid construct such as that shown in SEQ ID NO:1, or a subsequence thereof. Typically, such nucleic acids are capable of specifically hybridizing to the nucleic acid of SEQ ID NO:1 under stringent conditions. An anti-angiogenic polypeptide expressed using these nucleic acids of the invention typically is specifically immunoreactive with a polypeptide having the amino acid sequence of a plasminogen polypeptide such as that presented in SEQ ID NO:2. Corresponding modifications can be made to nucleic acids from other organisms which encode anti-angiogenic polypeptides of the invention; such modified nucleic acids are also within the scope of the invention.

Nucleic acids encoding the anti-angiogenic polypeptides of this invention can be prepared by any suitable method. For example, nucleic acids encoding plasminogen or a portion thereof can be isolated from a mammalian tissue sample using conventional cloning and/or amplification techniques. A wide variety of cloning and in vitro amplification methods suitable for the construction of the anti-angiogenic polypeptide encoding nucleic acids are well-known to persons of skill. Examples of these techniques and instructions sufficient to direct persons of skill through many cloning exercises are found in Berger and Kimmel, Guide to Molecular Cloning Techniques, Methods in Enzymology 152 Academic Press, Inc., San Diego, Calif. (Berger); Sambrook et al. (1989) Molecular Cloning—A Laboratory Manual (2nd ed.) Vol. 1-3, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor Press, New York, (Sambrook); Current Protocols in Molecular Biology, F. M. Ausubel et al., eds., Current Protocols, a joint venture between Greene Publishing Associates, Inc. and John Wiley & Sons, Inc., (1994 Supplement) (Ausubel); Cashion et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,017,478; and Carr, European Patent No. 0,246,864.

Amplification methods such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) are also useful for preparing the nucleic acids of the invention. Examples of techniques sufficient to direct persons of skill through in vitro amplification methods are found in Berger, Sambrook, and Ausubel, as well as Mullis et al. (1987) U.S. Pat. No. 4,683,202 ; PCR Protocols A Guide to Methods and Applications (Innis et al. eds) Academic Press Inc. San Diego, Calif. (1990) (Innis); Amheim & Levinson (Oct. 1, 1990) C & EN 36-47 ; The Journal Of NIH Research (1991) 3: 81-94; Kwoh et al. (1989) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 86: 1173; Guatelli et al. (1990) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 87: 1874; Lomell et al. (1989) J. Clin. Chem 35: 1826; Landegren et al. (1988) Science 241: 1077-1080; Van Brunt (1990) Biotechnology 8: 291-294; Wu and Wallace (1989) Gene 4, 560; and Barringer et al. (1990) Gene 89: 117.

Alternatively, the nucleic acids can be prepared using the known plasminogen nucleotide sequences as a guide, with or without sequence optimization, for direct chemical synthesis by methods such as the phosphotriester method of Narang et al. Meth. Enzymol. 68: 90-99 (1979); the phosphodiester method of Brown et al., Meth. Enzymol. 68: 109-151 (1979); the diethylphosphoramidite method of Beaucage et al., Tetra. Lett., 22: 1859-1862 (1981); and the solid support method of U.S. Pat. No. 4,458,066. Oligonucleotide synthesis is typically carried out on commercially available solid phase oligonucleotide synthesis machines (Needham-VanDevanter et al. (1984) Nucleic Acids Res. 12:6159-6168). Chemical synthesis produces a single stranded oligonucleotide. This may be converted into double stranded DNA by hybridization with a complementary sequence, or by polymerization with a DNA polymerase using the single strand as a template. One of skill would recognize that while chemical synthesis of DNA is often limited to sequences of about 100 bases, longer sequences may be obtained by the ligation of shorter sequences.

In one embodiment, nucleic acids of the invention that encode an anti-angiogenic polypeptide are cloned using DNA amplification methods such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Thus, for example, the nucleic acid sequence or subsequence is PCR amplified, using a sense primer containing one restriction site (e.g., NdeI) and the 5′ end of the sequence and an antisense primer containing another restriction site (e.g. HindIII) and the 3′ end of the sequence. The coding sequence can be examined for the presence of the same restriction sites; if present, they can be mutated to ensure that digestion with the selected enzymes does not cleave the coding sequence. This will produce a nucleic acid encoding the desired anti-angiogenic polypeptide and having terminal restriction sites. This nucleic acid can then be easily ligated into a vector containing the appropriate corresponding restriction sites. Suitable PCR primers can be determined by one of skill in the art using the sequence information provided in SEQ ID NO: 1.

The invention also provides nucleic acids that comprise an expression cassette that is capable of directing expression of the anti-angiogenic polypeptide in a desired cell, and secretion from the cell. The expression cassettes generally include, at minimum, a DNA encoding an anti-angiogenic polypeptide that is operably linked to a promoter. Preferably, the expression cassettes will also include a sequence that encodes a signal peptide. When introduced into a cell, the promoter drives expression of the gene, resulting in production of the polypeptide. The promoter can be constitutively expressed in a particular cell, or can be inducible by a suitable stimulus. The cytomegalovirus (CMV) promoter is one example of a strong constitutive promoter (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,168,062). Tissue specific or inducible promoters find use with the subject invention where it is desired to limit transcription to particular cells, for example proliferating cells or endothelial cells. Examples of promoters include cell-cycle regulated promoters, or those obtained from a α-interferon gene, a heat shock gene, a metallothionein gene or those obtained from steroid hormone-responsive genes. Such inducible promoters can be used to regulate transcription of a gene by cell cycle status, or by the use of external stimuli such as interferon or glucocorticoids. Since the arrangement of eukaryotic promoter elements is highly flexible, combinations of constitutive and inducible elements also can be used. Tandem arrays of two or more inducible promoter elements can increase the level of induction above levels of transcription achieved when compared to the level of induction achieved with a single inducible element.

Transcriptional enhancer elements are optionally included in the expression cassette. Enhancer DNA sequences are primary regulators of transcriptional activity which can act to increase transcription from a promoter element. Enhancers do not have to be in the 5′ orientation with respect to the promoter in order to enhance transcriptional activity, nor do they need to be in the region of the start site of transcription. The combination of promoter and enhancer element(s) used in a particular expression cassette can be selected by one skilled in the art to maximize specific effects. Different enhancer elements can be used to produce a desired level of transgene expression in a wide variety of tissue and cell types. For example, the human CMV immediate early promoter-enhancer element is used to produce high level transgene expression in many different tissues in vivo. Examples of other enhancer elements which confer a high level of transcription on linked genes in a number of different cell types from many species include enhancers from SV40 and RSV-LTR. The SV40 and RSV-LTR are essentially constitutive. They are combined with other enhancers which have specific effects, or the specific enhancers are used alone.

In a preferred embodiment, expression of the anti-angiogenic polypeptide is limited to endothelial cells. Cell specificity can be achieved by use of endothelial cell specific promoters and/or enhancers. Such promoters include those obtained from genes of the platelet-derived growth factor/vascular endothelial growth factor (PDGF/VEGF) family, including KDR/flk-1, which controls expression of one of two receptors for vascular endothelial growth factor (Patterson et al. (1995) J. Biol. Chem. 270: 23111-23118). Genes encoding leukocyte adhesion proteins, including endothelial-leukocyte adhesion molecule 1 (ELAM1); VCAM1; ICAM1; the endothelin-1 promoter (Lee et al. (1990) J. Biol. Chem. 265: 10446-10450); and von Willebrand factor (vWf) gene promoter (the −487/+247 region, which encompasses most of the first non-coding exon, in particular can induce gene expression preferentially in human umbilical vein endothelial cells); Tie-1; P-selectin; and glycam-1 are also suitable sources of endothelial-specific promoters. Other suitable promoters are known to those of skill in the art.

Efficient enhancer elements that are active only in a tissue-, developmental-, or cell-specific fashion are also known. Suitable enhancers include immunoglobulin, CMV, interleukin-2 (IL-2) and β-globin enhancers, as well as those associated with the specifically expressed promoters listed above and others known to those of skill in the art. Alternatively, a tissue-specific promoter can be fused to a very active, heterologous enhancer element, such as the SV40 enhancer, in order to confer both a high level of transcription and tissue-specific transgene transcription. Evaluation of particular combinations of enhancer elements for a particular desired effect or tissue of expression is within the level of skill in the art.

The invention also provides nucleic acids that encode a signal peptide operably linked to an anti-angiogenic polypeptide. A signal peptide facilitates the secretion of the anti-angiogenic polypeptide from the cell in which the gene is expressed; this is often preferred both for ease of purification of the anti-angiogenic polypeptide and also where the nucleic acids themselves are used as therapeutic and/or prophylactic reagents to deliver anti-angiogenic activity. In the latter case, the anti-angiogenic polypeptide produced upon introduction of the nucleic acids of the invention into cells of the mammal being treated is secreted to inhibit proliferation of neighboring cells or of the same cell (autocrine). Nucleic acids also can be introduced into cells at a site remote from that at which the anti-angiogenic activity is desired. Suitable signal peptides include those of growth hormone, wnt-1, IgK, and the like.

The expression cassettes of the invention can also include additional elements that facilitate expression and secretion of the anti-angiogenic polypeptides. For example, the nucleic acid sequence can be optimized to provide a Kozak consensus sequence that can improve translation efficiency. See, e.g., Francis et al. (1992) Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1130: 29; Kozak, M. (1989) Mol. Cell. Biol. 9: 5073. Improved expression can result from including in an expression cassette an intron such as a pre-pro insulin intron and the like. The PTL-3 intron shown in FIG. 4B is a chimeric intron derived from the Promega pGL3 vector series and consists of a 5′ splice donor derived from the first intron of human β-globin and the 3′ splice acceptor derived from the immunoglobulin gene. Polyadenylation signals are also typically present in expression cassettes of the invention.

Where purification of the anti-angiogenic polypeptide is desired, it is often advantageous to include a polynucleotide sequence that encodes a tag which can be used for purification. One example of a suitable tag is the FLAG™ peptide (Kodak), which consists of an eight amino acid FLAG peptide marker that specifically binds to commercially available antibodies. Another example of a suitable tag is a polyhistidine sequence, which is capable of binding to metal chelate affinity ligands. Generally, at least two histidine residues are required to obtain binding to a ligand; the use of additional adjacent histidines increases the binding affinity. Typically, six adjacent histidines are used, although one can use more or less than six. Suitable metal chelate affinity ligands that specifically bind to a polyhistidine molecular tag include nitrilo-tri-acetic acid (NTA) (Hochuli, E. (1990) “Purification of recombinant proteins with metal chelating adsorbents” In Genetic Engineering: Principles and Methods , J. K. Setlow, Ed., Plenum Press, NY; commercially available from Qiagen (Santa Clarita, Calif.)). Another example of a suitable tag for purification of anti-angiogenic polypeptides is an influenza hemagglutinin (HA) tag. Tags are also useful for tracking gene delivery and expression in vivo.

The nucleic acids of the invention are useful not only for in vivo therapeutic and prophylactic methods, but also find use in vitro. For example, the nucleic acids are useful for preparation of anti-angiogenic polypeptides for use in studies of angiogenesis. The nucleic acids that encode polypeptides having anti-angiogenic activity are also useful as probes to identify and isolate genes and cDNAs encoding anti-angiogenic polypeptides of various mammals.

B. Polypeptides having Anti-angiogenic Activity

The invention provides polypeptides that are capable of inhibiting angiogenesis. The polypeptides have an amino acid sequence that includes three or more plasminogen kringle regions, and generally include at least about 340 amino acids of a native plasminogen, but are shorter than full-length plasminogen. Preferably, the polypeptides are substantially identical to a portion of a native plasminogen extending from about amino acid 97 to at least about amino acid 462 (numbered from the initial methionine of the plasminogen signal sequence). The amino acid sequence can be derived from a plasminogen that is native to any mammal, with human, mouse, and primate plasminogens being preferred. For example, in one embodiment the amino acid sequence is substantially identical to a subsequence of a murine plasminogen as shown in SEQ ID NO:3. An anti-angiogenic polypeptide of the invention generally is specifically immunoreactive with a polypeptide having the amino acid sequence of a plasminogen such as that presented in SEQ ID NO:2.

Most preferably, the anti-angiogenic polypeptide will have at least three, and preferably four, kringle regions of human plasminogen; typically, this amino acid sequence will extend from about amino acid 97 to at least about amino acid 462 of human plasminogen (four kringles), and may extend up to about amino acid 566 of human plasminogen (five kringles). For example, an anti-angiogenic polypeptide of the invention can have an amino acid sequence substantially identical to a subsequence of that shown in SEQ ID NO:4, and/or can be specifically immunoreactive with such plasminogen.

To identify polypeptides of the invention which have anti-angiogenic activity, one can use any of several assays known to those of skill in the art. Suitable assays for anti-angiogenic activity include those which use Matrigel, which is an extract of basement membrane (Passaniti et al. (1992) Lab. Invest. 67: 519). Matrigel is commercially available (Sigma Chemical Co., St. Louis Mo.; Becton Dickinson, Bedford Mass.). Other assays for inhibition of angiogenesis are known to those of skill in the art.

The anti-angiogenic polypeptides of the invention can be synthesized using standard chemical peptide synthesis techniques. To synthesize a full-length anti-angiogenic polypeptide that includes at least three plasminogen kringle regions, subsequences can be synthesized separately (in one or more units) and then fused by condensation of the amino terminus of one molecule with the carboxyl terminus of the other molecule thereby forming a peptide bond. Solid phase synthesis in which the C-terminal amino acid of the sequence is attached to an insoluble support followed by sequential addition of the remaining amino acids in the sequence is the preferred method for the chemical synthesis of the polypeptides of this invention. Techniques for solid phase synthesis are described by Barany and Merrifield, Solid - Phase Peptide Synthesis ; pp. 3-284 in The Peptides: Analysis, Synthesis, Biology. Vol. 2: Special Methods in Peptide Synthesis, Part A., Merrifield, et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc., 85: 2149-2156 (1963), and Stewart et al., Solid Phase Peptide Synthesis, 2nd ed., Pierce Chem. Co., Rockford, Ill. (1984).

In a preferred embodiment, the anti-angiogenic polypeptides are synthesized using recombinant DNA methodology. Generally this involves creating a DNA that encodes the anti-angiogenic polypeptide, placing the DNA in an expression cassette under the control of a particular promoter, expressing the protein in a host, isolating the expressed protein and, if required, renaturing the protein. Preparation of nucleic acids encoding the anti-angiogenic polypeptides of the invention is discussed above. Once a nucleic acid is obtained that encodes an anti-angiogenic polypeptide, the nucleic acid can be expressed in a variety of host cells, including E. coli, other bacterial hosts, yeast, and various higher eukaryotic cells such as the COS, CHO and HeLa cells lines and myeloma cell lines. For large scale production, E. coli or yeast hosts, such as Pichia pastoris , are preferred. The recombinant protein gene will be operably linked to appropriate expression control sequences for each host. For E. coli this includes a promoter such as the T7, trp, or lambda promoters, a ribosome binding site and preferably a transcription termination signal. For eukaryotic cells, the control sequences will include a promoter and preferably an enhancer derived from immunoglobulin genes, SV40, cytomegalovirus, etc., and a polyadenylation sequence, and may include splice donor and acceptor sequences.

The plasmids for expression of the anti-angiogenic polypeptides can be transferred into the chosen host cell by well-known methods such as calcium chloride transformation for E. coli and calcium phosphate treatment or electroporation for mammalian cells. Cells transformed by the plasmids can be selected by resistance to antibiotics conferred by genes contained on the plasmids, such as the amp, gpt, neo and hyg genes. Other selectable markers are also known to those of skill in the art.

Once expressed, the recombinant anti-angiogenic polypeptides can be purified according to standard procedures of the art, including ammonium sulfate precipitation, affinity columns, column chromatography, gel electrophoresis and the like (see, generally, R. Scopes, Protein Purification , Springer-Verlag, N.Y. (1982), Deutscher, Methods in Enzymology Vol. 182: Guide to Protein Purification., Academic Press, Inc. N.Y. (1990)). Substantially pure compositions of at least about 90 to 95% homogeneity are preferred, and 98 to 99% or more homogeneity are most preferred. Once purified, partially or to homogeneity as desired, the polypeptides may then be used (e.g., as immunogens for antibody production or directly as therapeutic anti-angiogenic agents).

One of skill in the art would recognize that after chemical synthesis, biological expression, or purification, the anti-angiogenic polypeptide(s) may possess a conformation substantially different than the native conformations of the constituent polypeptides. In this case, it may be necessary to denature and reduce the polypeptide and then to cause the polypeptide to re-fold into the preferred conformation. Methods of reducing and denaturing proteins and inducing re-folding are well known to those of skill in the art (See, Debinski et al. (1993) J. Biol. Chem., 268: 14065-14070; Kreitman and Pastan (1993) Bioconjug. Chem., 4: 581-585; and Buchner, et al. (1992) Anal. Biochem., 205: 263-270). Debinski et al., for example, describe the denaturation and reduction of inclusion body proteins in guanidine-DTE. The protein is then refolded in a redox buffer containing oxidized glutathione and L-arginine.

One of skill would recognize that modifications can be made to the anti-angiogenic polypeptides without diminishing their biological activity. For example, conservative amino acid substitutions can be introduced without loss of anti-angiogenic activity. Some modifications may be made to facilitate the cloning or expression, such as providing conveniently located restriction sites or termination codons or purification sequences. Such modifications are well known to those of skill in the art and include, for example, a methionine added at the amino terminus to provide an initiation site, or additional amino acids (e.g., influenza hemagglutinin (HA) placed on either terminus to create a “tag” that is conveniently recognized by an antibody for assay or purification purposes.

The anti-angiogenic polypeptides of the invention have numerous in vitro uses that would be recognized by one of skill in the art. For example, the polypeptides are useful for analysis of the mechanism of action of angiogenesis inhibitors or stimulators. The polypeptides also find use as affinity chromatography reagents for purification of receptors and other molecules involved in angiogenesis and its inhibition, and also for use in preparing antibodies against angiostatin and plasminogen.

C. Methods of Treating Disease Conditions arising from Undesirable Angiogenesis and/or Endothelial Cell Proliferation

The invention also provides methods of delivering anti-angiogenic activity to a mammal. In one embodiment, the anti-angiogenic activity is delivered by contacting cells of the mammal with a nucleic acid comprising a polynucleotide sequence encoding a secreted anti-angiogenic polypeptide. Preferably, the anti-angiogenic polypeptide encoded by the nucleic acid contains at least three kringle domains. In another embodiment, an anti-angiogenic polypeptide itself is administered to a mammal in order to inhibit undesired cellular proliferation and/or angiogenesis. In either embodiment, sufficient anti-angiogenic activity is administered to reduce or eliminate the undesired angiogenesis, resulting in mitigation or elimination of the undesirable angiogenesis-associated conditions. The amount of anti-angiogenic activity required to achieve the desired degree of angiogenesis inhibition or cell proliferation inhibition is termed an “effective amount.” These methods are useful for treating various disease or otherwise undesirable effects that result from or are facilitated by angiogenesis; these diseases and conditions are referred to herein as angiogenesis-associated diseases or conditions.

Also provided are methods for inhibiting angiogenesis, and methods for inhibiting proliferation of endothelial cells. These methods are useful for ameliorating the effects of conditions that are characterized by abnormal or undesirable angiogenesis or endothelial cell proliferation. The term “inhibit” includes both prophylactic and therapeutic use, to prevent the undesirable proliferation from occurring and also for treating existing angiogenic diseases and/or endothelial cell proliferation conditions.

The methods of the invention find use in treating human patients, and are also suitable for veterinary applications.

1. Methods of Administering Anti-angiogenic Activity

One embodiment of the invention provides methods of delivering anti-angiogenic activity to a mammal by introducing into cells of the mammal a nucleic acid that comprises a polynucleotide sequence which encodes a polypeptide having anti-angiogenesis activity. In a preferred embodiment, the nucleic acid encoding the anti-angiogenic polypeptide is operably linked to a polynucleotide sequence that encodes a signal peptide, thus resulting in secretion of the anti-angiogenic polypeptide from the cell. The nucleic acid can be either DNA or RNA, preferably DNA, such as, for example, plasmid DNA. Upon delivery of the nucleic acid to a cell, the anti-angiogenic polypeptide is expressed, and preferably secreted, thus providing anti-angiogenic activity.

The nucleic acids can be delivered locally to cells at the site at which inhibition of angiogenesis or endothelial cell proliferation is desired. For example, one can administer nucleic acids encoding an anti-angiogenic polypeptide directly to endothelial cells that feed a tumor, or directly to tumor cells. In an alternative embodiment, the nucleic acids of the invention are administered to a site in the mammal that is remote from that at which inhibition of angiogenesis is desired, for example, by intravenous administration. Thus, an anti-angiogenic polypeptide-encoding gene of the present invention, in an appropriate expression vector, may be delivered to proliferating endothelial cells whereby the endothelial cells take up the DNA and express an anti-angiogenic polypeptide. Anti-angiogenic polypeptides will typically be secreted from the transfected endothelial cells and will inhibit local angiogenesis, and may also act at a distance by travel through blood.

a) Cellular Transfection and Gene Therapy

The present invention provides nucleic acids encoding anti-angiogenic polypeptides for the transfection of cells in vitro and in vivo. These nucleic acids can be inserted into any of a number of well known vectors for the transfection and transformation of target cells and organisms as described below. The nucleic acids are transfected into cells, ex vivo or in vivo, through the interaction of the vector and the target cell. The gene encoding the anti-angiogenic polypeptide, under the control of a promoter, expresses the anti-angiogenic polypeptide, which is then secreted, thereby inhibiting undesirable angiogenesis. Much of the product remains cell-associated upon secretion, and therefore provides advantages over direct administration of an anti-angiogenic polypeptide.

For a review of gene therapy procedures, see Anderson, Science (1992) 256:808-813; Nabel and Felgner (1993) TIBTECH 11: 211-217; Mitani and Caskey (1993) TIBTECH 11: 162-166; Mulligan (1993) Science 926-932; Dillon (1993) TIBTECH 11: 167-175; Miller (1992) Nature 357: 455-460; Van Brunt (1988) Biotechnology 6(10): 1149-1154; Vigne (1995) Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience 8: 35-36; Kremer and Perricaudet (1995) British Medical Bulletin 51(1) 31-44; Haddada et al. (1995) in Current Topics in Microbiology and Immunology Doerfler and Böhm (eds) Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg Germany; and Yu et al., Gene Therapy (1994) 1:13-26.

Delivery of the gene or genetic material into the cell is the first critical step in gene therapy treatment of angiogenesis-related conditions. A large number of delivery methods are well known to those of skill in the art. Such methods include, for example liposome-based gene delivery (Debs and Zhu (1993) WO 93/24640; Mannino and Gould-Fogerite (1988) BioTechniques 6(7): 682-691; Rose U.S. Pat. No. 5,279,833; Brigham (1991) WO 91/06309; and Felgner et al. (1987) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 84: 7413-7414), and replication-defective retroviral vectors harboring a therapeutic polynucleotide sequence as part of the retroviral genome (see, e.g., Miller et al. (1990) Mol. Cell. Biol. 10:4239 (1990); Kolberg (1992) J. NIH Res. 4:43, and Cornetta et al. Hum. Gene Ther. 2:215 (1991)). Widely used retroviral vectors include those based upon Moloney murine leukemia virus (MMuLV), gibbon ape leukemia virus (GaLV), simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and combinations thereof. See, e.g., Buchscher et al. (1992) J. Virol. 66(5) 2731-2739; Johann et al. (1992) J. Virol. 66 (5):1635-1640 (1992); Sommerfelt et al. (1990) Virol. 176:58-59; Wilson et al. (1989) J. Virol. 63:2374-2378; Miller et al., J. Virol. 65:2220-2224 (1991); Wong-Staal et al., PCT/US94/05700, and Rosenburg and Fauci (1993) in Fundamental Immunology, Third Edition Paul (ed) Raven Press, Ltd., New York and the references therein, and Yu et al., Gene Therapy (1994) supra).

Adenoviral vectors are also commonly used for introduction of nucleic acids into mammals. See, e.g., Berns et al. (1995) Ann. NY Acad. Sci. 772: 95-104; Ali et al. (1994) Gene Ther. 1: 367-384; and Haddada et al. (1995) Curr. Top. Microbiol. Immunol. 199 (Pt 3): 297-306 for review.

Adeno-associated virus (AAV)-based vectors are also used to transduce cells with target nucleic acids, e.g., in the in vitro production of nucleic acids and peptides, and in in vivo and ex vivo gene therapy procedures. See, West et al. (1987) Virology 160:38-47; Carter et al. (1989) U.S. Pat. No. 4,797,368; Carter et al. WO 93/24641 (1993); Kotin (1994) Human Gene Therapy 5:793-801; Muzyczka (1994) J. Clin. Invst. 94:1351 and Samulski (supra) for an overview of AAV vectors. Construction of recombinant AAV vectors are described in a number of publications, including Lebkowski, U.S. Pat. No. 5,173,414; Tratschin et al. (1985) Mol. Cell. Biol. 5(11):3251-3260; Tratschin, et al. (1984) Mol. Cell. Biol., 4:2072-2081; Hermonat and Muzyczka (1984) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 81:6466-6470; McLaughlin et al. (1988) and Samulski et al. (1989) J. Virol., 63:03822-3828. Cell lines that can be transformed by rAAV include those described in Lebkowski et al. (1988) Mol. Cell. Biol., 8:3988-3996.

In one embodiment, “naked” DNA and/or RNA encoding an anti-angiogenic polypeptide is introduced directly into a tissue, such as muscle. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,580,859. Other methods such as “biolistic” or particle-mediated transformation (see, e.g., Sanford et al., U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,945,050; 5,036,006) are also suitable for introduction of anti-angiogenic activity into cells of a mammal according to the invention. These methods are useful not only for in vivo introduction of DNA into a mammal, but also for ex vivo modification of cells for reintroduction into a mammal. As for other methods of delivering nucleic acids encoding polypeptides having anti-angiogenic activity, if necessary, DNA administration is repeated in order to maintain the desired level of angiogenesis inhibition and tumor cell death.

b) In vivo Transfection

Vectors (e.g., retroviruses, adenoviruses, liposomes, etc.) containing therapeutic nucleic acids can be administered directly to the organism for transduction of cells in vivo. Administration is typically by intravenous administration to deliver the anti-angiogenic nucleic acid to vascular endothelial cells. Administration by direct injection into tumors or by intraperitoneal injection is also suitable, as are other routes normally used for introducing a molecule into ultimate contact with blood or tissue cells. The packaged nucleic acids are administered in any suitable manner, preferably with pharmaceutically acceptable carriers. Suitable methods of administering such packaged nucleic acids are available and well known to those of skill in the art, and, although more than one route can be used to administer a particular composition, a particular route can often provide a more immediate and more effective reaction than another route.

Pharmaceutically acceptable carriers are determined in part by the particular composition being administered, as well as by the particular method used to administer the composition. Accordingly, there is a wide variety of suitable formulations of pharmaceutical compositions of the present invention.

Formulations suitable for oral administration can consist of (a) liquid solutions, such as an effective amount of the packaged nucleic acid suspended in diluents, such as water, saline or PEG 400; (b) capsules, sachets or tablets, each containing a predetermined amount of the active ingredient, as liquids, solids, granules or gelatin; (c) suspensions in an appropriate liquid; and (d) suitable emulsions. Tablet forms can include one or more of lactose, sucrose, mannitol, sorbitol, calcium phosphates, corn starch, potato starch, tragacanth, microcrystalline cellulose, acacia, gelatin, colloidal silicon dioxide, croscarmellose sodium, talc, magnesium stearate, stearic acid, and other excipients, colorants, fillers, binders, diluents, buffering agents, moistening agents, preservatives, flavoring agents, dyes, disintegrating agents, and pharmaceutically compatible carriers. Lozenge forms can comprise the active ingredient in a flavor, usually sucrose and acacia or tragacanth, as well as pastilles comprising the active ingredient in an inert base, such as gelatin and glycerin or sucrose and acacia emulsions, gels, and the like containing, in addition to the active ingredient, carriers known in the art.

The packaged nucleic acids, alone or in combination with other suitable components, can be made into aerosol formulations (e.g., they can be “nebulized”) to be administered via inhalation. Aerosol formulations can be placed into pressurized acceptable propellants, such as dichlorodifluoromethane, propane, nitrogen, and the like.

Suitable formulations for rectal administration include, for example, suppositories, which consist of the packaged nucleic acid with a suppository base. Suitable suppository bases include natural or synthetic triglycerides or paraffin hydrocarbons. In addition, it is also possible to use gelatin rectal capsules which consist of a combination of the packaged nucleic acid with a base, including, for example, liquid triglycerides, polyethylene glycols, and paraffin hydrocarbons.

Formulations suitable for parenteral administration, such as, for example, by intraarticular (in the joints), intravenous, intramuscular, intradermal, intraperitoneal, and subcutaneous routes, include aqueous and non-aqueous, isotonic sterile injection solutions, which can contain antioxidants, buffers, bacteriostats, and solutes that render the formulation isotonic with the blood of the intended recipient, and aqueous and non-aqueous sterile suspensions that can include suspending agents, solubilizers, thickening agents, stabilizers, and preservatives. In the practice of this invention, compositions can be administered, for example, by intravenous infusion, orally, topically, intraperitoneally, intravesically or intrathecally. Parenteral administration and intravenous administration are the preferred methods of administration. The formulations of packaged nucleic acid can be presented in unit-dose or multi-dose sealed containers, such as ampoules and vials.

Injection solutions and suspensions can be prepared from sterile powders, granules, and tablets of the kind previously described. Cells transduced by the packaged nucleic acid can also be administered intravenously or parenterally.

The dose administered to a patient, in the context of the present invention should be sufficient to effect a beneficial therapeutic response in the patient over time. The dose will be determined by the efficacy of the particular vector employed and the condition of the patient, as well as the body weight or vascular surface area of the patient to be treated. The size of the dose also will be determined by the existence, nature, and extent of any adverse side-effects that accompany the administration of a particular vector, or transduced cell type in a particular patient.

In determining the effective amount of the vector to be administered in the treatment or prophylaxis of abnormal angiogenesis, the physician evaluates vector toxicities, progression of the disease, and the production of anti-vector antibodies, if any. In general, the dose equivalent of a naked nucleic acid from a vector is from about 1 μg to 1 mg for a typical 70 kilogram patient, and doses of vectors used to deliver the nucleic acid are calculated to yield an equivalent amount of therapeutic nucleic acid.

For administration, inhibitors and transduced cells of the present invention can be administered at a rate determined by the LD-50 of the inhibitor, vector, or transduced cell type, and the side-effects of the inhibitor, vector or cell type at various concentrations, as applied to the mass and overall health of the patient. Administration can be accomplished via single or divided doses.

In a preferred embodiment, proliferating vascular endothelial cells are transfected with plasmid DNA containing the anti-angiogenic polypeptide-encoding gene of the present invention by cationic lipid mediated gene delivery. Tumor cells can also be transfected. The lipids can be used in formulations for the preparation of lipid vesicles or liposomes for use in gene delivery systems. See Lasic, D., Liposomes: From Physics to Applications , Elsevier: Amsterdam, 1993. Typically, cationic lipids are used in combination with a neutral lipid in approximately equimolar amounts.

Cationic lipids of interest include, for example, imidazolinium derivatives (WO 95/14380), guanidine derivatives (WO 95/14381), phosphatidyl choline derivatives (WO 95/35301), and piperazine derivatives (WO 95/14651). Examples of cationic lipids that may be used in the present invention include DOTIM (also called BODAI) (Solodin et al. (1995) Biochem. 34: 13537-13544), DDAB (Rose et al. (1991) BioTechniques 10(4):520-525), DOTMA (U.S. Pat. No. 5,550,289), DOTAP (Eibl and Wooley (1979) Biophys. Chem. 10:261-271), DMRIE (Felgner et al. (1994) J. Biol. Chem. 269(4): 2550-2561), EDMPC (commercially available from Avanti Polar Lipids, Alabaster, Ala.), DC-Chol (Gau and Huang (1991) Biochem. Biophys. Res. Comm. 179:280-285), DOGS (Behr et al. (1989) Proc. Nat'l Acad. Sci. USA, 86:6982-6986), MBOP (also called MeBOP) (WO 95/14651), and those described in WO 97/00241. Particularly preferred are DOTIM, DOTAP, MBN275 )1-[9(Z)octadecyl]-2-[8(Z)-heptadecenyl]-3-(2-hydroxyethyl)-imidazolinium chloride) (as described in copending US application identified as Attorney Docket No. 18484-00300US, filed on even date herewith) or MBOP for intravenous delivery to vascular endothelial cells of various organs, particularly the lung. In addition, cationic lipid carriers having more than one cationic lipid species may be used to produce complexes for gene delivery.

Neutral lipids of use in transfection complexes include, for example, dioleoyl phosphatidylethanolamine (DOPE), Hui et al. (1996) Biophys. J. (71): 590-599; cholesterol, Liu et al. (1997) Nat. Biotech. 15: 167-173; and dilauroyl phosphatidylethanolamine (DLPE) (co-pending patent application Ser. No. 08/832,749, which is incorporated herein by reference). For transfection of vascular endothelial cells by intravenous administration, cholesterol and DLPE are the preferred neutral lipids. Preferably the transfection complex is prepared from liposomes having a 1:1 molar ratio of DOTIM or MBN275 and cholesterol, complexed with plasmid DNA in a 1:6 ratio (μg DNA:nmole cationic lipid). See, WO 96/40962.

The lipid mixtures typically are prepared in chloroform, dried, and rehydrated in, e.g., 5% dextrose in water or a physiologic buffer to form liposomes. Low ionic strength solutions are preferred. Liposomes may be LUVs, MLVs, or SUVs. Usually, the liposomes formed upon rehydration are predominantly MLVs, and SUVs are formed from them by sonication or by extrusion through membranes with pore sizes ranging from 50 to 600nm to reduce their size. Most preferably, the liposomes are extruded through a series of membranes with decreasing pore sizes, e.g., 400 nm, 200 mn and 50 nn.

The resulting liposomes are mixed with a nucleic acid solution with constant agitation to form the cationic lipid-nucleic acid transfection complexes. Preferred transfection complex size for intravenous administration is from 50 to 5000 nm, most preferably from 100 to 400 nm.

Preferably, DNA/lipid complexes are prepared at a DNA concentration of 0.625 mg/ml. The dose delivered is from about 10 μg to about 2 mg per gram of body weight. Repeat doses may be delivered at intervals of from about 2 days to about 2 months, as necessary.

c) Pharmaceutical Compositions

The compounds of this invention which have anti-angiogenic activity can be formulated as pharmaceutical compositions for parenteral (e.g., subcutaneous, intramuscular, intradermal, or intravenous), topical, oral, rectal, intrathecal, buccal (e.g., sublingual), or local administration, such as by aerosol or transdermally, for prophylactic and/or therapeutic treatment. The pharmaceutical compositions can be administered in a variety of unit dosage forms depending upon the method of administration. For example, unit dosage forms suitable for oral administration include powder, tablets, pills, capsules and lozenges. It is recognized that the anti-angiogenic polypeptides, when administered orally, must be protected from digestion. This is typically accomplished either by complexing the protein with a composition to render it resistant to acidic and enzymatic hydrolysis or by packaging the protein in an appropriately resistant carrier such as a liposome. Means of protecting proteins from digestion are well known in the art. The pharmaceutical compositions can be encapsulated, e.g., in liposomes, or in a formulation that provides for slow release of the active ingredient.

The pharmaceutical compositions of this invention are useful for topical administration to cancers and their precursors. In another embodiment, the compositions are useful for parenteral administration, such as intravenous administration or administration into a body cavity or lumen of an organ. The compositions for administration will commonly comprise a solution of the anti-angiogenic polypeptide dissolved in a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier, preferably an aqueous carrier. A variety of aqueous carriers can be used, e.g., buffered saline and the like. These solutions are sterile and generally free of undesirable matter. These compositions may be sterilized by conventional, well known sterilization techniques. The compositions may contain pharmaceutically acceptable auxiliary substances as required to approximate physiological conditions such as pH adjusting and buffering agents, toxicity adjusting agents and the like, for example, sodium acetate, sodium chloride, potassium chloride, calcium chloride, sodium lactate and the like. The concentration of anti-angiogenic polypeptide in these formulations can vary widely, and will be selected primarily based on fluid volumes, viscosities, body weight and the like in accordance with the particular mode of administration selected and the patient's needs.

In therapeutic applications, compositions are administered to a patient suffering from a disease (e.g., a cancer or other disease that is associated with undesirable angiogenesis) in an amount sufficient to cure or at least partially arrest the disease and its complications. An amount adequate to accomplish this is defined as a “therapeutically effective dose.” Amounts effective for this use will depend upon the severity of the disease and the general state of the patient's health. Single or multiple administrations of the compositions may be administered depending on the dosage and frequency as required and tolerated by the patient. In any event, the composition should provide a sufficient quantity of the proteins of this invention to effectively treat the patient.

The toxicity and therapeutic efficacy of the anti-angiogenic polypeptides and nucleic acids encoding anti-angiogenic polypeptides provided by the invention are determined using standard pharmaceutical procedures in cell cultures or experimental animals. One can determine the LD 50 (the dose lethal to 50% of the population) and the ED 50 (the dose therapeutically effective in 50% of the population) using procedures presented herein and those otherwise known to those of skill in the art. For example, anti-cell proliferation activity can be assayed as described by Mosmann, T. (1983) J. Immunol. Meth. 65: 55-63 and Skehan et al. (1990) J. Nat'l. Cancer Inst. 82: 1107-1112. Antimetastasis and antitumor activity can be determined by the ability of a treatment to reduce the size and number of tumor colonies in vivo (Tuszynski et al. (1987) Cancer Research 47: 4130-4133).

The therapeutic index (LD 50 /ED 50 ) can be determined from these experiments. Dosages are typically employed that result in a circulating concentration that results in little or no toxicity and includes the ED 50 . The dosage may vary within this range depending upon the dosage form employed and the route of administration utilized. One can use animal models to determine appropriate dosages which result in effective inhibition of angiogenesis and/or endothelial cell proliferation.

A typical pharmaceutical composition for intravenous administration would be about 0.1 to 10 mg per patient per day. Dosages from 0.1 up to about 100 mg per patient per day may be used, particularly when the drug is administered to a secluded site and not into the blood stream, such as into a body cavity or into a lumen of an organ. Substantially higher dosages are possible in topical administration. Actual methods for preparing parenterally administrable compositions will be known or apparent to those skilled in the art and are described in more detail in such publications as Remington's Pharmaceutical Science, 15th ed., Mack Publishing Company, Easton, Pa. (1980).

For treatment of cancer, one can administer the anti-angiogenic activity either alone or in conjunction with other cancer therapies. For example, the anti-angiogenic activity can be used in conjunction with chemotherapy, radiation therapy, or surgical intervention. Such treatments can act in a synergistic manner, with the reduction in tumor mass caused by the conventional therapy increasing the effectiveness of the angiogenesis inhibitor, and vice versa. The compositions containing an anti-angiogenic polypeptide of the invention, nucleic acid encoding such polypeptide, or a cocktail thereof (i.e., with other proteins or chemical agents), can be administered for therapeutic treatments. To treat a cancer, for example, one can administer an anti-angiogenic polypeptide or nucleic acid to inhibit angiogenesis and a chemotherapeutic agent to induce tumor cell death. The anti-angiogenic activity and the additional reagent can be administered in a common pharmaceutical carrier. Anti-cancer drugs that are suitable for co-administration with the compounds of the invention are well known to those skilled in the art of cancer therapy. Such drugs include, for example, aminoglutethimide, amsacrine (m-AMSA), azacitidine, asparaginase, bleomycin, busulfan, carboplatin, carmustine (BCNU), chlorambucil, cisplatin (cis-DDP), cyclophosphamide, cytarabine HCl, dacarbazine, dactinomycin, daunorubicin HCl, doxorubicin HCl, erythropoietin, estramustine phosphate sodium, etoposide (V16-213), floxuridine, fluorouracil (5-FU), flutamide, hexamethylmelamine (HMM), hydroxyurea (hydroxycarbamide), ifosfamide, interferon alpha, interleukin 2, leuprolide acetate (LHRH-releasing factor analogue), lomustine (CCNU), mechlorethamine HCl (nitrogen mustard), melphalan, mercaptopurine, mesna, methotrexate (MTX), mitoguazone (methyl-GAG, methyl glyoxal bis-guanylhydrazone, MGBG), mitomycin, mitotane (o. p′-DDD), mitoxantrone HCl, octreotide, pentostatin, plicamycin, procarbazine HCl, semustine (methyl-CCNU), streptozocin, tamoxifen citrate, teniposide (VM-26), thioguanine, thiotepa, vinblastine sulfate, vincristine sulfate, and vindesine sulfate.

The invention also provides packs, dispenser devices, and kits for administering anti-angiogenic activity to a mammal. For example, packs or dispenser devices that contain one or more unit dosage forms are provided. Typically, instructions for administration of the compounds will be provided with the packaging, along with a suitable indication on the label that the compound is suitable for treatment of an indicated condition. For example, the label may state that the active compound within the packaging is useful for treating a tumor, or for preventing or treating other diseases or conditions that are associated with angiogenesis or endothelial cell proliferation.

2. Angiogenesis-associated Conditions that are Treatable Using the Claimed Methods

Angiogenesis-associated conditions against which these methods are effective include tumorigenesis and metastasis, and other diseases characterized by abnormal growth of endothelial cells. Examples of disorders characterized by blood vessel proliferation include restenosis, retinopathies, and atheroschlerosis.

The methods are useful for inhibiting tumorigenesis, which depends upon a supply of blood to provide nutrients to the growing tumor and remove waste products. Among the tumors treatable using the claimed methods are malignant solid tumors including, but not limited to, glioblastoma, melanoma and Kaposi's sarcoma, and ovarian, lung, mammary, prostate, pancreatic, colon and epidermoid carcinoma, neuroblastomas, retinoblastomas, rhabdomyosarcomas, Ewing sarcomas, and osteosarcomas. Non-malignant tumors, including acoustic neuromas, neurofibromas, trachomas and pyogenic granulomas, are also responsive to the claimed treatment methods.

The invention also provides methods for reducing or eliminating tumor metastasis. Angiogenesis is involved in metastasis in at least two ways. First, vascularization of a tumor allows tumor cells to enter the blood stream and to circulate throughout the body. Second, once tumor cells have arrived at the metastatic site, angiogenesis is required for growth of the new tumor. Both of these stages of metastasis can be inhibited by administering anti-angiogenic activity according to the methods described herein.

The methods of the invention are also useful for treating other conditions that are associated with undesirable angiogenesis. Among these diseases are ocular conditions such as ocular neovascular disease, age-related macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, corneal graft rejection, neovascular glaucoma and retrolental fibroplasia, and others. Rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, chronic inflammation (including ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease, and Bartonellosis), atheroschlerosis, and hemangioma are also associated with undesirable angiogenesis and thus are treatable using the claimed methods. Adverse effects of certain hereditary diseases, including Osler-Weber-Rendu disease, and hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia are also caused at least in part by angiogenesis and thus are amenable to treatment using the claimed methods.

The invention also provides contraceptive methods, as administration of anti-angiogenic activity can block the angiogenesis that is required for ovulation and also for implantation of a blastula after fertilization.

EXAMPLES

The following examples are offered to illustrate, but not to limit the present invention.

Example 1

Construction of a Vector for Expression of an Anti-Angiogenic Polypeptide

The gene encoding an anti-angiogenic polypeptide was designed, based on the murine plasminogen sequence, to start at amino acid number 97 of murine plasminogen and terminate at amino acid number 462, which is between the fourth and fifth kringle domain (counting as a “kringle” one domain in which the conserved kringle sequence varies by a single amino acid substitution from the consensus sequence). The nucleic acid sequence was then modified to optimize codon usage in mouse cells. The resulting anti-angiogenic polypeptide-encoding nucleotide sequence is from nucleotide 83 to nucleotide 1178 in FIG. 1 .

A signal peptide from mouse IgK was added in frame with the coding region of the anti-angiogenic polypeptide to direct entry into the secretory pathway and secretion. The signal peptide sequence is from nucleotide 14 to nucleotide 82 in FIG. 1 . An amino acid sequence tag “HA” was added in frame at the COOH terminus to enable tracking of the gene product in cells and tissues. The sequence encoding the HA tag is from nucleotide 1181 to nucleotide 1207 in FIG. 1 . Unique restriction sites were added to both ends of the gene for subcloning into expression vectors and between the signal sequence and the amino terminus of the anti-angiogenic polypeptide as well as between the carboxy terminus of the polypeptide and the HA tag. The insertion of a SalI site between the 3′ end of the polypeptide-encoding region and the HA tag resulted in an insertion of a codon for aspartate. The resulting nucleic acid sequence was chemically synthesized. A map of the construct is shown in FIG. 4 A.

The resulting gene was cloned into a pMB249 expression vector under the control of an hCMV promoter as shown in FIG. 4 B.

Example 2

Expression and Purification of Anti-Angiogenic Polypeptide

The anti-angiogenic polypeptide-encoding vector shown in FIG. 4 was transfected into 293 cells by lipofection. Cells that were 50% confluent were incubated for four hours with DNA/lipid complexes prepared using 5 μg DNA and 30 μl Lipofectamine (Gibco BRL, Gaithersburg Md.), and then fed regular growth medium. In addition, the same vector lacking the anti-angiogenic polypeptide-encoding sequences was transfected into 293 cells to provide an empty vector control.

The conditioned medium was collected and the anti-angiogenic polypeptide purified using an anti-HA column (Pierce Chemical, Kit Couple HA Peptide), and eluted from the column using HA peptide. Purified protein was subjected to SDS-PAGE followed by electroblot transfer to filter paper. The filter was used for N-terminal sequence analysis, which confirmed the amino acid sequence shown in FIG. 1 , and showed the signal peptide was cleaved between amino acids 20 and 21.

For endothelial cell proliferation assays, anti-angiogenic protein was purified as described above. A control purification was performed in parallel using conditioned medium from empty vector-transfected 293 cells. Starting material and purified protein was subjected to western immunoblot analysis using anti-HA antibody to verify success of purification. FIG. 6 is a western blot showing the presence of anti-angiogenic polypeptide purified from conditioned media from cells transfected with the vector encoding the anti-angiogenic polypeptide, and the absence of anti-angiogenic polypeptide in conditioned media from 293 cells and empty vector-transfected 293 cells.

Example 3

Endothelial Cell Proliferation Assay with Purified Anti-Angiogenic Polypeptide

Human lung microvascular endothelial cells (HMVEC; Clonetics, San Diego Calif.) were used in this experiment. Cells were from a low passage (less than 12) stock at 50-80% confluency in an appropriate growth medium.

On Day 0, human lung microvascular endothelial cells (HMVEC; Clonetics, San Diego Calif.) were trypsinized and resuspended in growth medium (containing 10% fetal calf serum at a concentration of 25,000 cells per ml. One hundred microliters of this cell suspension was added to each well of a 96 well microtiter plate (tissue culture treated plates, Falcon, Franklin Lakes N.J., Cat. No. 3072), for a final cell number of 2500 per well.

Medium was removed from the plates on Day 1, and the plates were rinsed with 200 μl serum-free medium. 100 μl of 2% fetal bovine serum in DMEM was added to each well, and cells were allowed to quiesce overnight.

On Day 2, purified anti-angiogenic polypeptide, controls, and stimuli were added. Each condition was run at least in triplicate. Twenty μl of purified anti-angiogenic polypeptide (approx. 100 ng/well) and control empty vector were added to the plates one hour prior to the addition of stimuli. Stimuli were added to both anti-angiogenic polypeptide and empty vector wells. For these human cells, 10 μl per well of bFGF (Gibco BRL, Gaithersburg Md.) in serum-free DMEM was added to a final concentration of 3 ng/ml can be used, but human VEGF (R&D Systems, Minneapolis Minn.) at a final concentration of 80 ng/ml is also effective. As a positive control for proliferation, 20 μl of serum was added to a final concentration of 20%. Control quiescent cells were maintained by adding 10 μl serum-free DMEM to the required number of cells. Plates were incubated for 24 hours post-treatment at 37° C.

On Day 3, a colorimetric Cell Proliferation ELISA, BrdU (colorimetric) (Boehringer Mannheim, Indianapolis Ind., Cat. No. 1647 229) was employed to quantify cell proliferation. Cells were labeled with BRDU (100 μM stock, 10 μl/well) for five hours at 37° C. as described in the manufacturer's instructions. One lane of cells was not labeled with BrdU; this lane served as the blank. Cells were then fixed with FixDenat for 30 minutes. The plates were washed, after which the anti-BRDU-POD horseradish peroxidase solution (100 μl per well) was added and the plates were incubated at room temperature for 90 minutes. After an additional wash, substrate was added (100 μl per well). Color developed within 10-15 minutes, and plates were read at an absorbance of 370 nm (the absorbance at a reference wavelength of 492 nm was subtracted). The non-BRDU wells were subtracted out as a blank.

The non-BRDU blank wells typically have an absorbance of not greater than 0.050 on average. The untreated (quiescent) cells will generally have a subtracted absorbance of no greater than 0.250. Stimulated cells typically have an absorbance of one or greater (generally at least about three times greater than that for quiescent cells). HUVEC cell proliferation was inhibited in the presence of bFGF stimulation, but not under other test conditions (FIG. 7 ).

Example 4

Inhibition of Endothelial Cell Proliferation by Delivery of Nucleic Acids encoding Anti-Angiogenic Polypeptides

On Day 0, MBMEC cells were transfected with equal amounts of the anti-angiogenic polypeptide-encoding vector shown in FIG. 3B or an empty vector control. Cells that were 50% confluent in 10 cm dishes were incubated for four hours with DNA/lipid complexes prepared from Lipofectamine™ (Gibco BRL, Gaithersburg Md.) using 5 μg DNA and 30 μl of Lipofectamine. Cells were then rinsed, trypsinized, and resuspended at a concentration of 50,000 cells per ml in medium containing serum. One hundred μl of cells were then seeded into 96-well plates, resulting in 5000 cells per well. The assay was performed as described in Example 2. Growth was assessed by counting cells at 2, 3 and 4 days after transfection. The assays were performed in the absence of serum or with stimulation by 20% serum or 10% FBS plus 3 ng/ml bFGF. FIG. 8 shows growth inhibition by transfection with a vector encoding the anti-angiogenic polypeptide at day 2 with stimulation by 20% FBS; FIG. 9 shows growth inhibition by transfection with a vector encoding anti-angiogenic polypeptide at day 4 with stimulation by 10% FBS plus bFGF; and FIG. 10 shows growth inhibition by transfection with a vector encoding the anti-angiogenic polypeptide, with 20% serum stimulation, at days 2, 3 and 4.

Multiple experiments were performed, and the inhibition of proliferation ranged from 0-40%. The inhibition was most evident with 20 percent serum stimulation.

Example 5

In vivo Assay for Inhibition of Angiogenesis

The ability of the AngP gene to inhibit metastasis was assayed in the mouse Lewis lung model described in, for example, O'Reilly (1997) Regulation of Angiogenesis , Goldberg and Rosen, Eds., Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel, pp. 273-294). Murine tumor cells (Lewis lung carcinoma cells, high metastatic variants (LLC-HM) (Children's Hospital, Boston, Mass.) were injected into C57BL/6 mice. Approximately 2.5×10 5 cells (>90% viable) were injected into the tail vein. Control animals were necropsied starting on day 5 until lung metastases were observed.

Cationic lipid-DNA transfection complexes were prepared using plasmid DNA encoding AngP as shown in FIG. 4B (with the exception that an additional tag (FLAG, Kodak) was added 3′ to the HA tag). In addition, negative control complexes were prepared using the same plasmid vector lacking the AngP coding sequence. The lipids MBN275 and cholesterol were dissolved in a mixture of chloroform and methanol (1:1). Lipid films of cationic and neutral lipid at a 1:1 molar ratio were formed with a rotary evaporator, then hydrated with 5% (w/v) dextrose in water (D5W) at room temperature and extruded through a series of membranes having pore sizes of 400 nm, 200 nm and 50 nm. DNA-lipid complexes were prepared at a final concentration of 0.5 mg/ml DNA and 2 mg/ml cationic lipid, in 0.7 mM Tris pH 8.0, 5% dextrose, by adding the DNA solution to an equal volume of the liposome solution, with constant stirring, using a Hamilton Dilutor 540B (Hamilton, Reno, Nev.).

Cationic lipid-DNA complexes were administered intravenously starting on the day when lung metastases were first observed (day 7). Ten mice per group were treated with 50 μl DNA-lipid complexes each, on days 7, 10, 13 and 16. As a positive control, one group of mice received 18 mg/kg cyclophosphamide on day 3.

Animals were harvested at day 17, and lungs examined for weight, number of lung metastases, and size of lung metastases. The results are shown in Table 1 and FIGS. 11-13 . The results show that complexes containing the AngP DNA sequence resulted in a decrease in the number and size of lung metastases, and in lung weight as compared to both the untreated and empty vector control animals.

TABLE 1
Day 17
Mouse		Total Lung	Met.
ID		Weights	No.	Tumor Nodule Diameter (mm)	Mean
889		0.306	48	2.05	2.06	2.35	2.35	1.98	1.84	1.798333
762		0.4669	150	2.94	2.41	2.15	2.15	2.64	2.9	2.531667
342		0.146	0
853		0.2133	15	2.41	1.77	4.26	4.26	2.93	2.4	3.005
929		0.7927	150	3.66	2.94	3.23	3.23	2.64	3.27	3.161667
Mean	No treatment	0.38498	72.6							2.624167
465		0.447	72	3.78	2.13	2.06	2.18	2.45	3.7	2.716667
396		0.2155	9	1.94	1.43	1.3	0.88	1.68		1.446
374		0.4542	150	3.13	2.27	2.36	2.13	2.31	3.4	2.6
996		0.1721	8	1.35	1.2	1.6				1.383333
426		0.3015	150	2.36	2.68	2.05	2.28	2.17	1.97	2.251667
700		0.4593	85	3.5	1.88	2.55	2.42	2.4	2.03	2.463333
311		0.1956	33	1.3	1.3	1.43	1.59	1.45	1.02	1.348333
466		0.2016	33	1.3	2.58	1.16	1.14	1.64	1.39	1.535
392		0.6955	150	2.96	2.44	2.83	2.28	2.8	2.28	2.598333
292		0.3682	40	1.84	2.68	2.68	2.1	2.74	1.75	2.298333
Mean	Empty Vecto	0.35105	73							2.0641
“3”		0.5692	21	2.68	1.24	1.41	2.1	1.04	1.44	1.651667
365		0.259	33	1.68	1.83	2.04	1.8	2.05	1.63	1.838333
283		0.4511	150	3.41	2.02	2.3	1.83	2.2	1.81	2.261667
378		0.2523	44	1.84	2.22	2.17	2.73	1.76	1.67	2.065
362		0.2451	23	2.75	1.55	1.89	1.26	1.33	1.2	1.663333
306		0.358	25	2.14	1.27	1.08	1.46	1.4	1.21	1.426667
347		0.1683	0
976		0.2015	8	3.5	4.22	1.41	0.93			2.186667
944		0.1595	3	1.85
“4”		0.151	3	1.07	0.61					0.61
Mean	Angiostatin	0.2815	31							1.712917
Note: Mets can be accurately counted to approx. 150, then they become too many to count. The “too many to count” observation is arbitrarily set at 150.

It is understood that the examples and embodiments described herein are for illustrative purposes only and that various modifications or changes in light thereof will be suggested to persons skilled in the art and are to be included within the spirit and purview of this application and scope of the appended claims. All publications, patents, and patent applications cited herein are hereby incorporated herein by reference for all purposes.

9 1 1219 DNA Artificial Sequence Description of Artificial Sequencechimeric anti-angiogenic polypeptide 1ggaattcgcc gcc atg gag aca gat act ctc ctt ctg tgg gtt ctg ctg 49 Met Glu Thr Asp Thr Leu Leu Leu Trp Val Leu Leu 1 5 10ctg tgg gtc cct ggg agt act gga gat gcc gcg gtt tac ttg tcc gag 97Leu Trp Val Pro Gly Ser Thr Gly Asp Ala Ala Val Tyr Leu Ser Glu 15 20 25tgt aag aca ggc atc ggt aac gga tac agg ggt aca atg tcc aga act 145Cys Lys Thr Gly Ile Gly Asn Gly Tyr Arg Gly Thr Met Ser Arg Thr 30 35 40aag agt gga gtt gcc tgc caa aag tgg ggg gcc acc ttc cca cac gtc 193Lys Ser Gly Val Ala Cys Gln Lys Trp Gly Ala Thr Phe Pro His Val 45 50 55 60ccc aat tat tct cct tca acc cac cca aac gag ggt ctg gaa gag aac 241Pro Asn Tyr Ser Pro Ser Thr His Pro Asn Glu Gly Leu Glu Glu Asn 65 70 75tac tgt aga aac ccc gac aac gac gaa cag ggg cct tgg tgt tac act 289Tyr Cys Arg Asn Pro Asp Asn Asp Glu Gln Gly Pro Trp Cys Tyr Thr 80 85 90aca gat cca gac aag aga tat gat tac tgc aac att cca gag tgc gaa 337Thr Asp Pro Asp Lys Arg Tyr Asp Tyr Cys Asn Ile Pro Glu Cys Glu 95 100 105gag gaa tgt atg tat tgt agt ggc gaa aag tat gaa ggc aaa atc agc 385Glu Glu Cys Met Tyr Cys Ser Gly Glu Lys Tyr Glu Gly Lys Ile Ser 110 115 120aaa act atg tct ggg ctc gac tgt cag gct tgg gac tct cag agt cca 433Lys Thr Met Ser Gly Leu Asp Cys Gln Ala Trp Asp Ser Gln Ser Pro125 130 135 140cac gca cac gga tac atc cct gca aag ttc ccc tca aag aac ttg aaa 481His Ala His Gly Tyr Ile Pro Ala Lys Phe Pro Ser Lys Asn Leu Lys 145 150 155atg aac tat tgt cac aac cca gat ggt gag ccc aga ccc tgg tgt ttt 529Met Asn Tyr Cys His Asn Pro Asp Gly Glu Pro Arg Pro Trp Cys Phe 160 165 170acc aca gat cct act aag aga tgg gag tac tgc gat att cct cgc tgc 577Thr Thr Asp Pro Thr Lys Arg Trp Glu Tyr Cys Asp Ile Pro Arg Cys 175 180 185aca aca cct cct ccc ccc ccc tcc ccc act tac cag tgc ctc aaa ggc 625Thr Thr Pro Pro Pro Pro Pro Ser Pro Thr Tyr Gln Cys Leu Lys Gly 190 195 200aga ggc gaa aat tac agg ggc acc gtg tca gtt acc gtt agt ggc aag 673Arg Gly Glu Asn Tyr Arg Gly Thr Val Ser Val Thr Val Ser Gly Lys205 210 215 220aca tgt cag aga tcc tcc gaa cag act cct cac cgc cac aac agg act 721Thr Cys Gln Arg Ser Ser Glu Gln Thr Pro His Arg His Asn Arg Thr 225 230 235cca gaa aat ttc ccc tgt aag aat ttg gaa gaa aat tac tgt agg aat 769Pro Glu Asn Phe Pro Cys Lys Asn Leu Glu Glu Asn Tyr Cys Arg Asn 240 245 250ccc gac ggc gag acc gcc cct tgg tgc tat acc acc gac agt caa ctg 817Pro Asp Gly Glu Thr Ala Pro Trp Cys Tyr Thr Thr Asp Ser Gln Leu 255 260 265aga tgg gaa tac tgt gag atc cca tcc tgt gag agt tct gca tca cca 865Arg Trp Glu Tyr Cys Glu Ile Pro Ser Cys Glu Ser Ser Ala Ser Pro 270 275 280gat cag agc gat tca agc gtg cca cca gag gaa cag acc cct gtc gtg 913Asp Gln Ser Asp Ser Ser Val Pro Pro Glu Glu Gln Thr Pro Val Val285 290 295 300caa gag tgt tat caa agc gac gga cag tcc tat aga ggc aca tcc tcc 961Gln Glu Cys Tyr Gln Ser Asp Gly Gln Ser Tyr Arg Gly Thr Ser Ser 305 310 315aca aca atc acc ggc aag aaa tgc caa agc tgg gcc gca atg ttc cca 1009Thr Thr Ile Thr Gly Lys Lys Cys Gln Ser Trp Ala Ala Met Phe Pro 320 325 330cac agg cac tcc aag acc cca gag aac ttc ccc gat gca ggc ttg gag 1057His Arg His Ser Lys Thr Pro Glu Asn Phe Pro Asp Ala Gly Leu Glu 335 340 345atg aac tac tgc cgc aat cct gat gga gat aag ggg cct tgg tgc tat 1105Met Asn Tyr Cys Arg Asn Pro Asp Gly Asp Lys Gly Pro Trp Cys Tyr 350 355 360act act gac cca tcc gtc aga tgg gag tat tgc aat ctg aaa aga tgt 1153Thr Thr Asp Pro Ser Val Arg Trp Glu Tyr Cys Asn Leu Lys Arg Cys365 370 375 380tct gag acc ggc ggg tct gtg gtc gac tac cct tac gac gtc cca gat 1201Ser Glu Thr Gly Gly Ser Val Val Asp Tyr Pro Tyr Asp Val Pro Asp 385 390 395tac gca tgagtctaga gc 1219Tyr Ala 2 398 PRT Artificial Sequence Description of Artificial Sequencechimeric anti-angiogenic polypeptide 2Met Glu Thr Asp Thr Leu Leu Leu Trp Val Leu Leu Leu Trp Val Pro 1 5 10 15Gly Ser Thr Gly Asp Ala Ala Val Tyr Leu Ser Glu Cys Lys Thr Gly 20 25 30Ile Gly Asn Gly Tyr Arg Gly Thr Met Ser Arg Thr Lys Ser Gly Val 35 40 45Ala Cys Gln Lys Trp Gly Ala Thr Phe Pro His Val Pro Asn Tyr Ser 50 55 60Pro Ser Thr His Pro Asn Glu Gly Leu Glu Glu Asn Tyr Cys Arg Asn 65 70 75 80Pro Asp Asn Asp Glu Gln Gly Pro Trp Cys Tyr Thr Thr Asp Pro Asp 85 90 95Lys Arg Tyr Asp Tyr Cys Asn Ile Pro Glu Cys Glu Glu Glu Cys Met 100 105 110Tyr Cys Ser Gly Glu Lys Tyr Glu Gly Lys Ile Ser Lys Thr Met Ser 115 120 125Gly Leu Asp Cys Gln Ala Trp Asp Ser Gln Ser Pro His Ala His Gly 130 135 140Tyr Ile Pro Ala Lys Phe Pro Ser Lys Asn Leu Lys Met Asn Tyr Cys145 150 155 160His Asn Pro Asp Gly Glu Pro Arg Pro Trp Cys Phe Thr Thr Asp Pro 165 170 175Thr Lys Arg Trp Glu Tyr Cys Asp Ile Pro Arg Cys Thr Thr Pro Pro 180 185 190Pro Pro Pro Ser Pro Thr Tyr Gln Cys Leu Lys Gly Arg Gly Glu Asn 195 200 205Tyr Arg Gly Thr Val Ser Val Thr Val Ser Gly Lys Thr Cys Gln Arg 210 215 220Ser Ser Glu Gln Thr Pro His Arg His Asn Arg Thr Pro Glu Asn Phe225 230 235 240Pro Cys Lys Asn Leu Glu Glu Asn Tyr Cys Arg Asn Pro Asp Gly Glu 245 250 255Thr Ala Pro Trp Cys Tyr Thr Thr Asp Ser Gln Leu Arg Trp Glu Tyr 260 265 270Cys Glu Ile Pro Ser Cys Glu Ser Ser Ala Ser Pro Asp Gln Ser Asp 275 280 285Ser Ser Val Pro Pro Glu Glu Gln Thr Pro Val Val Gln Glu Cys Tyr 290 295 300Gln Ser Asp Gly Gln Ser Tyr Arg Gly Thr Ser Ser Thr Thr Ile Thr305 310 315 320Gly Lys Lys Cys Gln Ser Trp Ala Ala Met Phe Pro His Arg His Ser 325 330 335Lys Thr Pro Glu Asn Phe Pro Asp Ala Gly Leu Glu Met Asn Tyr Cys 340 345 350Arg Asn Pro Asp Gly Asp Lys Gly Pro Trp Cys Tyr Thr Thr Asp Pro 355 360 365Ser Val Arg Trp Glu Tyr Cys Asn Leu Lys Arg Cys Ser Glu Thr Gly 370 375 380Gly Ser Val Val Asp Tyr Pro Tyr Asp Val Pro Asp Tyr Ala385 390 395 3 812 PRT Mus sp. mouse plasminogen 3Met Asp His Lys Glu Val Ile Leu Leu Phe Leu Leu Leu Leu Lys Pro 1 5 10 15Gly Gln Gly Asp Ser Leu Asp Gly Tyr Ile Ser Thr Gln Gly Ala Ser 20 25 30Leu Phe Ser Leu Thr Lys Lys Gln Leu Ala Ala Gly Gly Val Ser Asp 35 40 45Cys Leu Ala Lys Cys Glu Gly Glu Thr Asp Phe Val Cys Arg Ser Phe 50 55 60Gln Tyr His Ser Lys Glu Gln Gln Cys Val Ile Met Ala Glu Asn Ser 65 70 75 80Lys Thr Ser Ser Ile Ile Arg Met Arg Asp Val Ile Leu Phe Glu Lys 85 90 95Arg Val Tyr Leu Ser Glu Cys Lys Thr Gly Ile Gly Asn Gly Tyr Arg 100 105 110Gly Thr Met Ser Arg Thr Lys Ser Gly Val Ala Cys Gln Lys Trp Gly 115 120 125Ala Thr Phe Pro His Val Pro Asn Tyr Ser Pro Ser Thr His Pro Asn 130 135 140Glu Gly Leu Glu Glu Asn Tyr Cys Arg Asn Pro Asp Asn Asp Glu Gln145 150 155 160Gly Pro Trp Cys Tyr Thr Thr Asp Pro Asp Lys Arg Tyr Asp Tyr Cys 165 170 175Asn Ile Pro Glu Cys Glu Glu Glu Cys Met Tyr Cys Ser Gly Glu Lys 180 185 190Tyr Glu Gly Lys Ile Ser Lys Thr Met Ser Gly Leu Asp Cys Gln Ala 195 200 205Trp Asp Ser Gln Ser Pro His Ala His Gly Tyr Ile Pro Ala Lys Phe 210 215 220Pro Ser Lys Asn Leu Lys Met Asn Tyr Cys His Asn Pro Asp Gly Glu225 230 235 240Pro Arg Pro Trp Cys Phe Thr Thr Asp Pro Thr Lys Arg Trp Glu Tyr 245 250 255Cys Asp Ile Pro Arg Cys Thr Thr Pro Pro Pro Pro Pro Ser Pro Thr 260 265 270Tyr Gln Cys Leu Lys Gly Arg Gly Glu Asn Tyr Arg Gly Thr Val Ser 275 280 285Val Thr Val Ser Gly Lys Thr Cys Gln Arg Trp Ser Glu Gln Thr Pro 290 295 300His Arg His Asn Arg Thr Pro Glu Asn Phe Pro Cys Lys Asn Leu Glu305 310 315 320Glu Asn Tyr Cys Arg Asn Pro Asp Gly Glu Thr Ala Pro Trp Cys Tyr 325 330 335Thr Thr Asp Ser Gln Leu Arg Trp Glu Tyr Cys Glu Ile Pro Ser Cys 340 345 350Glu Ser Ser Ala Ser Pro Asp Gln Ser Asp Ser Ser Val Pro Pro Glu 355 360 365Glu Gln Thr Pro Val Val Gln Glu Cys Tyr Gln Ser Asp Gly Gln Ser 370 375 380Tyr Arg Gly Thr Ser Ser Thr Thr Ile Thr Gly Lys Lys Cys Gln Ser385 390 395 400Trp Ala Ala Met Phe Pro His Arg His Ser Lys Thr Pro Glu Asn Phe 405 410 415Pro Asp Ala Gly Leu Glu Met Asn Tyr Cys Arg Asn Pro Asp Gly Asp 420 425 430Lys Gly Pro Trp Cys Tyr Thr Thr Asp Pro Ser Val Arg Trp Glu Tyr 435 440 445Cys Asn Leu Lys Arg Cys Ser Glu Thr Gly Gly Ser Val Val Glu Leu 450 455 460Pro Thr Val Ser Gln Glu Pro Ser Gly Pro Ser Asp Ser Glu Thr Asp465 470 475 480Cys Met Tyr Gly Asn Gly Lys Asp Tyr Arg Gly Lys Thr Ala Val Thr 485 490 495Ala Ala Gly Thr Pro Cys Gln Gly Trp Ala Ala Gln Glu Pro His Arg 500 505 510His Ser Ile Phe Thr Pro Gln Thr Asn Pro Arg Ala Asp Leu Glu Lys 515 520 525Asn Tyr Cys Arg Asn Pro Asp Gly Asp Val Asn Gly Pro Trp Cys Tyr 530 535 540Thr Thr Asn Pro Arg Lys Leu Tyr Asp Tyr Cys Asp Ile Pro Leu Cys545 550 555 560Ala Ser Ala Ser Ser Phe Glu Cys Gly Lys Pro Gln Val Glu Pro Lys 565 570 575Lys Cys Pro Gly Arg Val Val Gly Gly Cys Val Ala Asn Pro His Ser 580 585 590Trp Pro Trp Gln Ile Ser Leu Arg Thr Arg Phe Thr Gly Gln His Phe 595 600 605Cys Gly Gly Thr Leu Ile Ala Pro Glu Trp Val Leu Thr Ala Ala His 610 615 620Cys Leu Glu Lys Ser Ser Arg Pro Glu Phe Tyr Lys Val Ile Leu Gly625 630 635 640Ala His Glu Glu Tyr Ile Arg Gly Leu Asp Val Gln Glu Ile Ser Val 645 650 655Ala Lys Leu Ile Leu Glu Pro Asn Asn Arg Asp Ile Ala Leu Leu Lys 660 665 670Leu Ser Arg Pro Ala Thr Ile Thr Asp Lys Val Ile Pro Ala Cys Leu 675 680 685Pro Ser Pro Asn Tyr Met Val Ala Asp Arg Thr Ile Cys Tyr Ile Thr 690 695 700Gly Trp Gly Glu Thr Gln Gly Thr Phe Gly Ala Gly Arg Leu Lys Glu705 710 715 720Ala Gln Leu Pro Val Ile Glu Asn Lys Val Cys Asn Arg Val Glu Tyr 725 730 735Leu Asn Asn Arg Val Lys Ser Thr Glu Leu Cys Ala Gly Gln Leu Ala 740 745 750Gly Gly Val Asp Ser Cys Gln Gly Asp Ser Gly Gly Pro Leu Val Cys 755 760 765Phe Glu Lys Asp Lys Tyr Ile Leu Gln Gly Val Thr Ser Trp Gly Leu 770 775 780Gly Cys Ala Arg Pro Asn Lys Pro Gly Val Tyr Val Arg Val Ser Arg785 790 795 800Phe Val Asp Trp Ile Glu Arg Glu Met Arg Asn Asn 805 810 4 2430 DNA Homo sapiens CDS (1)..(2430) human plasminogen 4atg gaa cat aag gaa gtg gtt ctt cta ctt ctt tta ttt ctg aaa tca 48Met Glu His Lys Glu Val Val Leu Leu Leu Leu Leu Phe Leu Lys Ser 1 5 10 15ggt caa gga gag cct ctg gat gac tat gtg aat acc cag ggg gct tca 96Gly Gln Gly Glu Pro Leu Asp Asp Tyr Val Asn Thr Gln Gly Ala Ser 20 25 30ctg ttc agt gtc act aag aag cag ctg gga gca gga agt ata gaa gaa 144Leu Phe Ser Val Thr Lys Lys Gln Leu Gly Ala Gly Ser Ile Glu Glu 35 40 45tgt gca gca aaa tgt gag gag gac gaa gaa ttc acc tgc agg gca ttc 192Cys Ala Ala Lys Cys Glu Glu Asp Glu Glu Phe Thr Cys Arg Ala Phe 50 55 60caa tat cac agt aaa gag caa caa tgt gtg ata atg gct gaa aac agg 240Gln Tyr His Ser Lys Glu Gln Gln Cys Val Ile Met Ala Glu Asn Arg 65 70 75 80aag tcc tcc ata atc att agg atg aga gat gta gtt tta ttt gaa aag 288Lys Ser Ser Ile Ile Ile Arg Met Arg Asp Val Val Leu Phe Glu Lys 85 90 95aaa gtg tat ctc tca gag tgc aag act ggg aat gga aag aac tac aga 336Lys Val Tyr Leu Ser Glu Cys Lys Thr Gly Asn Gly Lys Asn Tyr Arg 100 105 110ggg acg atg tcc aaa aca aaa aat ggc atc acc tgt caa aaa tgg agt 384Gly Thr Met Ser Lys Thr Lys Asn Gly Ile Thr Cys Gln Lys Trp Ser 115 120 125tcc act tct ccc cac aga cct aga ttc tca cct gct aca cac ccc tca 432Ser Thr Ser Pro His Arg Pro Arg Phe Ser Pro Ala Thr His Pro Ser 130 135 140gag gga ctg gag gag aac tac tgc agg aat cca gac aac gat ccg cag 480Glu Gly Leu Glu Glu Asn Tyr Cys Arg Asn Pro Asp Asn Asp Pro Gln145 150 155 160ggg ccc tgg tgc tat act act gat cca gaa aag aga tat gac tac tgc 528Gly Pro Trp Cys Tyr Thr Thr Asp Pro Glu Lys Arg Tyr Asp Tyr Cys 165 170 175gac att ctt gag tgt gaa gag gaa tgt atg cat tgc agt gga gaa aac 576Asp Ile Leu Glu Cys Glu Glu Glu Cys Met His Cys Ser Gly Glu Asn 180 185 190tat gac ggc aaa att tcc aag acc atg tct gga ctg gaa tgc cag gcc 624Tyr Asp Gly Lys Ile Ser Lys Thr Met Ser Gly Leu Glu Cys Gln Ala 195 200 205tgg gac tct cag agc cca cac gct cat gga tac att cct tcc aaa ttt 672Trp Asp Ser Gln Ser Pro His Ala His Gly Tyr Ile Pro Ser Lys Phe 210 215 220cca aac aag aac ctg aag aag aat tac tgt cgt aac ccc gat agg gag 720Pro Asn Lys Asn Leu Lys Lys Asn Tyr Cys Arg Asn Pro Asp Arg Glu225 230 235 240ctg cgg cct tgg tgt ttc acc acc gac ccc aac aag cgc tgg gaa ctt 768Leu Arg Pro Trp Cys Phe Thr Thr Asp Pro Asn Lys Arg Trp Glu Leu 245 250 255tgc gac atc ccc cgc tgc aca aca cct cca cca tct tct ggt ccc acc 816Cys Asp Ile Pro Arg Cys Thr Thr Pro Pro Pro Ser Ser Gly Pro Thr 260 265 270tac cag tgt ctg aag gga aca ggt gaa aac tat cgc ggg aat gtg gct 864Tyr Gln Cys Leu Lys Gly Thr Gly Glu Asn Tyr Arg Gly Asn Val Ala 275 280 285gtt acc gtt tcc ggg cac acc tgt cag cac tgg agt gca cag acc cct 912Val Thr Val Ser Gly His Thr Cys Gln His Trp Ser Ala Gln Thr Pro 290 295 300cac aca cat aac agg aca cca gaa aac ttc ccc tgc aaa aat ttg gat 960His Thr His Asn Arg Thr Pro Glu Asn Phe Pro Cys Lys Asn Leu Asp305 310 315 320gaa aac tac tgc cgc aat cct gac gga aaa agg gcc cca tgg tgc cat 1008Glu Asn Tyr Cys Arg Asn Pro Asp Gly Lys Arg Ala Pro Trp Cys His 325 330 335aca acc aac agc caa gtg cgg tgg gag tac tgt aag ata ccg tcc tgt 1056Thr Thr Asn Ser Gln Val Arg Trp Glu Tyr Cys Lys Ile Pro Ser Cys 340 345 350gac tcc tcc cca gta tcc acg gaa caa ttg gct ccc aca gca cca cct 1104Asp Ser Ser Pro Val Ser Thr Glu Gln Leu Ala Pro Thr Ala Pro Pro 355 360 365gag cta acc cct gtg gtc cag gac tgc tac cat ggt gat gga cag agc 1152Glu Leu Thr Pro Val Val Gln Asp Cys Tyr His Gly Asp Gly Gln Ser 370 375 380tac cga ggc aca tcc tcc acc acc acc aca gga aag aag tgt cag tct 1200Tyr Arg Gly Thr Ser Ser Thr Thr Thr Thr Gly Lys Lys Cys Gln Ser385 390 395 400tgg tca tct atg aca cca cac cgg cac cag aag acc cca gaa aac tac 1248Trp Ser Ser Met Thr Pro His Arg His Gln Lys Thr Pro Glu Asn Tyr 405 410 415cca aat gct ggc ctg aca atg aac tac tgc agg aat cca gat gcc gat 1296Pro Asn Ala Gly Leu Thr Met Asn Tyr Cys Arg Asn Pro Asp Ala Asp 420 425 430aaa ggc ccc tgg tgt ttt acc aca gac ccc agc gtc agg tgg gag tac 1344Lys Gly Pro Trp Cys Phe Thr Thr Asp Pro Ser Val Arg Trp Glu Tyr 435 440 445tgc aac ctg aaa aaa tgc tca gga aca gaa gcg agt gtt gta gca cct 1392Cys Asn Leu Lys Lys Cys Ser Gly Thr Glu Ala Ser Val Val Ala Pro 450 455 460ccg cct gtt gtc ctg ctt cca gat gta gag act cct tcc gaa gaa gac 1440Pro Pro Val Val Leu Leu Pro Asp Val Glu Thr Pro Ser Glu Glu Asp465 470 475 480tgt atg ttt ggg aat ggg aaa gga tac cga ggc aag agg gcg acc act 1488Cys Met Phe Gly Asn Gly Lys Gly Tyr Arg Gly Lys Arg Ala Thr Thr 485 490 495gtt act ggg acg cca tgc cag gac tgg gct gcc cag gag ccc cat aga 1536Val Thr Gly Thr Pro Cys Gln Asp Trp Ala Ala Gln Glu Pro His Arg 500 505 510cac agc att ttc act cca gag aca aat cca cgg gcg ggt ctg gaa aaa 1584His Ser Ile Phe Thr Pro Glu Thr Asn Pro Arg Ala Gly Leu Glu Lys 515 520 525aat tac tgc cgt aac cct gat ggt gat gta ggt ggt ccc tgg tgc tac 1632Asn Tyr Cys Arg Asn Pro Asp Gly Asp Val Gly Gly Pro Trp Cys Tyr 530 535 540acg aca aat cca aga aaa ctt tac gac tac tgt gat gtc cct cag tgt 1680Thr Thr Asn Pro Arg Lys Leu Tyr Asp Tyr Cys Asp Val Pro Gln Cys545 550 555 560gcg gcc cct tca ttt gat tgt ggg aag cct caa gtg gag ccg aag aaa 1728Ala Ala Pro Ser Phe Asp Cys Gly Lys Pro Gln Val Glu Pro Lys Lys 565 570 575tgt cct gga agg gtt gtg ggg ggg tgt gtg gcc cac cca cat tcc tgg 1776Cys Pro Gly Arg Val Val Gly Gly Cys Val Ala His Pro His Ser Trp 580 585 590ccc tgg caa gtc agt ctt aga aca agg ttt gga atg cac ttc tgt gga 1824Pro Trp Gln Val Ser Leu Arg Thr Arg Phe Gly Met His Phe Cys Gly 595 600 605ggc acc ttg ata tcc cca gag tgg gtg ttg act gct gcc cac tgc ttg 1872Gly Thr Leu Ile Ser Pro Glu Trp Val Leu Thr Ala Ala His Cys Leu 610 615 620gag aag tcc cca agg cct tca tcc tac aag gtc atc ctg ggt gca cac 1920Glu Lys Ser Pro Arg Pro Ser Ser Tyr Lys Val Ile Leu Gly Ala His625 630 635 640caa gaa gtg aat ctc gaa ccg cat gtt cag gaa ata gaa gtg tct agg 1968Gln Glu Val Asn Leu Glu Pro His Val Gln Glu Ile Glu Val Ser Arg 645 650 655ctg ttc ttg gag ccc aca cga aaa gat att gcc ttg cta aag cta agc 2016Leu Phe Leu Glu Pro Thr Arg Lys Asp Ile Ala Leu Leu Lys Leu Ser 660 665 670agt cct gcc gtc atc act gac aaa gta atc cca gct tgt ctg cca tcc 2064Ser Pro Ala Val Ile Thr Asp Lys Val Ile Pro Ala Cys Leu Pro Ser 675 680 685cca aat tat gtg gtc gct gac cgg acc gaa tgt ttc atc act ggc tgg 2112Pro Asn Tyr Val Val Ala Asp Arg Thr Glu Cys Phe Ile Thr Gly Trp 690 695 700gga gaa acc caa ggt act ttt gga gct ggc ctt ctc aag gaa gcc cag 2160Gly Glu Thr Gln Gly Thr Phe Gly Ala Gly Leu Leu Lys Glu Ala Gln705 710 715 720ctc cct gtg att gag aat aaa gtg tgc aat cgc tat gag ttt ctg aat 2208Leu Pro Val Ile Glu Asn Lys Val Cys Asn Arg Tyr Glu Phe Leu Asn 725 730 735gga aga gtc caa tcc acc gaa ctc tgt gct ggg cat ttg gcc gga ggc 2256Gly Arg Val Gln Ser Thr Glu Leu Cys Ala Gly His Leu Ala Gly Gly 740 745 750act gac agt tgc cag ggt gac agt gga ggt cct ctg gtt tgc ttc gag 2304Thr Asp Ser Cys Gln Gly Asp Ser Gly Gly Pro Leu Val Cys Phe Glu 755 760 765aag gac aaa tac att tta caa gga gtc act tct tgg ggt ctt ggc tgt 2352Lys Asp Lys Tyr Ile Leu Gln Gly Val Thr Ser Trp Gly Leu Gly Cys 770 775 780gca cgc ccc aat aag cct ggt gtc tat gtt cgt gtt tca agg ttt gtt 2400Ala Arg Pro Asn Lys Pro Gly Val Tyr Val Arg Val Ser Arg Phe Val785 790 795 800act tgg att gag gga gtg atg aga aat aat 2430Thr Trp Ile Glu Gly Val Met Arg Asn Asn 805 810 5 810 PRT Homo sapiens 5Met Glu His Lys Glu Val Val Leu Leu Leu Leu Leu Phe Leu Lys Ser 1 5 10 15Gly Gln Gly Glu Pro Leu Asp Asp Tyr Val Asn Thr Gln Gly Ala Ser 20 25 30Leu Phe Ser Val Thr Lys Lys Gln Leu Gly Ala Gly Ser Ile Glu Glu 35 40 45Cys Ala Ala Lys Cys Glu Glu Asp Glu Glu Phe Thr Cys Arg Ala Phe 50 55 60Gln Tyr His Ser Lys Glu Gln Gln Cys Val Ile Met Ala Glu Asn Arg 65 70 75 80Lys Ser Ser Ile Ile Ile Arg Met Arg Asp Val Val Leu Phe Glu Lys 85 90 95Lys Val Tyr Leu Ser Glu Cys Lys Thr Gly Asn Gly Lys Asn Tyr Arg 100 105 110Gly Thr Met Ser Lys Thr Lys Asn Gly Ile Thr Cys Gln Lys Trp Ser 115 120 125Ser Thr Ser Pro His Arg Pro Arg Phe Ser Pro Ala Thr His Pro Ser 130 135 140Glu Gly Leu Glu Glu Asn Tyr Cys Arg Asn Pro Asp Asn Asp Pro Gln145 150 155 160Gly Pro Trp Cys Tyr Thr Thr Asp Pro Glu Lys Arg Tyr Asp Tyr Cys 165 170 175Asp Ile Leu Glu Cys Glu Glu Glu Cys Met His Cys Ser Gly Glu Asn 180 185 190Tyr Asp Gly Lys Ile Ser Lys Thr Met Ser Gly Leu Glu Cys Gln Ala 195 200 205Trp Asp Ser Gln Ser Pro His Ala His Gly Tyr Ile Pro Ser Lys Phe 210 215 220Pro Asn Lys Asn Leu Lys Lys Asn Tyr Cys Arg Asn Pro Asp Arg Glu225 230 235 240Leu Arg Pro Trp Cys Phe Thr Thr Asp Pro Asn Lys Arg Trp Glu Leu 245 250 255Cys Asp Ile Pro Arg Cys Thr Thr Pro Pro Pro Ser Ser Gly Pro Thr 260 265 270Tyr Gln Cys Leu Lys Gly Thr Gly Glu Asn Tyr Arg Gly Asn Val Ala 275 280 285Val Thr Val Ser Gly His Thr Cys Gln His Trp Ser Ala Gln Thr Pro 290 295 300His Thr His Asn Arg Thr Pro Glu Asn Phe Pro Cys Lys Asn Leu Asp305 310 315 320Glu Asn Tyr Cys Arg Asn Pro Asp Gly Lys Arg Ala Pro Trp Cys His 325 330 335Thr Thr Asn Ser Gln Val Arg Trp Glu Tyr Cys Lys Ile Pro Ser Cys 340 345 350Asp Ser Ser Pro Val Ser Thr Glu Gln Leu Ala Pro Thr Ala Pro Pro 355 360 365Glu Leu Thr Pro Val Val Gln Asp Cys Tyr His Gly Asp Gly Gln Ser 370 375 380Tyr Arg Gly Thr Ser Ser Thr Thr Thr Thr Gly Lys Lys Cys Gln Ser385 390 395 400Trp Ser Ser Met Thr Pro His Arg His Gln Lys Thr Pro Glu Asn Tyr 405 410 415Pro Asn Ala Gly Leu Thr Met Asn Tyr Cys Arg Asn Pro Asp Ala Asp 420 425 430Lys Gly Pro Trp Cys Phe Thr Thr Asp Pro Ser Val Arg Trp Glu Tyr 435 440 445Cys Asn Leu Lys Lys Cys Ser Gly Thr Glu Ala Ser Val Val Ala Pro 450 455 460Pro Pro Val Val Leu Leu Pro Asp Val Glu Thr Pro Ser Glu Glu Asp465 470 475 480Cys Met Phe Gly Asn Gly Lys Gly Tyr Arg Gly Lys Arg Ala Thr Thr 485 490 495Val Thr Gly Thr Pro Cys Gln Asp Trp Ala Ala Gln Glu Pro His Arg 500 505 510His Ser Ile Phe Thr Pro Glu Thr Asn Pro Arg Ala Gly Leu Glu Lys 515 520 525Asn Tyr Cys Arg Asn Pro Asp Gly Asp Val Gly Gly Pro Trp Cys Tyr 530 535 540Thr Thr Asn Pro Arg Lys Leu Tyr Asp Tyr Cys Asp Val Pro Gln Cys545 550 555 560Ala Ala Pro Ser Phe Asp Cys Gly Lys Pro Gln Val Glu Pro Lys Lys 565 570 575Cys Pro Gly Arg Val Val Gly Gly Cys Val Ala His Pro His Ser Trp 580 585 590Pro Trp Gln Val Ser Leu Arg Thr Arg Phe Gly Met His Phe Cys Gly 595 600 605Gly Thr Leu Ile Ser Pro Glu Trp Val Leu Thr Ala Ala His Cys Leu 610 615 620Glu Lys Ser Pro Arg Pro Ser Ser Tyr Lys Val Ile Leu Gly Ala His625 630 635 640Gln Glu Val Asn Leu Glu Pro His Val Gln Glu Ile Glu Val Ser Arg 645 650 655Leu Phe Leu Glu Pro Thr Arg Lys Asp Ile Ala Leu Leu Lys Leu Ser 660 665 670Ser Pro Ala Val Ile Thr Asp Lys Val Ile Pro Ala Cys Leu Pro Ser 675 680 685Pro Asn Tyr Val Val Ala Asp Arg Thr Glu Cys Phe Ile Thr Gly Trp 690 695 700Gly Glu Thr Gln Gly Thr Phe Gly Ala Gly Leu Leu Lys Glu Ala Gln705 710 715 720Leu Pro Val Ile Glu Asn Lys Val Cys Asn Arg Tyr Glu Phe Leu Asn 725 730 735Gly Arg Val Gln Ser Thr Glu Leu Cys Ala Gly His Leu Ala Gly Gly 740 745 750Thr Asp Ser Cys Gln Gly Asp Ser Gly Gly Pro Leu Val Cys Phe Glu 755 760 765Lys Asp Lys Tyr Ile Leu Gln Gly Val Thr Ser Trp Gly Leu Gly Cys 770 775 780Ala Arg Pro Asn Lys Pro Gly Val Tyr Val Arg Val Ser Arg Phe Val785 790 795 800Thr Trp Ile Glu Gly Val Met Arg Asn Asn 805 810 6 19 PRT Artificial Sequence Description of Artificial SequenceIgK signal sequence 6Glu Thr Asp Thr Leu Leu Leu Trp Val Leu Leu Leu Trp Val Pro Gly 1 5 10 15Ser Thr Gly 7 9 PRT Artificial Sequence Description of Artificial Sequenceinfluenza hemaglutinin (HA) tag 7Tyr Pro Tyr Asp Val Pro Asp Tyr Ala 1 5 8 7 PRT Artificial Sequence Description of Artificial Sequenceconsensus krigle domain 8Asn Tyr Cys Arg Asn Pro Asp 1 5 9 812 PRT Artificial Sequence Description of Artificial Sequenceconsensus plasminogen amino acid sequence 9Met Xaa His Lys Glu Val Xaa Leu Leu Xaa Leu Leu Xaa Leu Lys Xaa 1 5 10 15Gly Gln Gly Xaa Xaa Leu Asp Xaa Tyr Xaa Xaa Thr Gln Gly Ala Ser 20 25 30Leu Phe Ser Xaa Thr Lys Lys Gln Leu Xaa Ala Gly Xaa Xaa Xaa Xaa 35 40 45Cys Xaa Ala Lys Cys Glu Xaa Xaa Xaa Xaa Phe Xaa Cys Arg Xaa Phe 50 55 60Gln Tyr His Ser Lys Glu Gln Gln Cys Val Ile Met Ala Glu Asn Xaa 65 70 75 80Lys Xaa Ser Xaa Ile Ile Arg Met Arg Asp Val Xaa Leu Phe Glu Lys 85 90 95Xaa Val Tyr Leu Ser Glu Cys Lys Thr Gly Xaa Gly Xaa Xaa Tyr Arg 100 105 110Gly Thr Met Ser Xaa Thr Lys Xaa Gly Xaa Xaa Cys Gln Lys Trp Xaa 115 120 125Xaa Thr Xaa Pro His Xaa Pro Xaa Xaa Ser Pro Xaa Thr His Pro Xaa 130 135 140Glu Gly Leu Glu Glu Asn Tyr Cys Arg Asn Pro Asp Asn Asp Xaa Gln145 150 155 160Gly Pro Trp Cys Tyr Thr Thr Asp Pro Xaa Lys Arg Tyr Asp Tyr Cys 165 170 175Xaa Ile Xaa Glu Cys Glu Glu Glu Cys Met Xaa Cys Ser Gly Glu Xaa 180 185 190Tyr Xaa Gly Lys Ile Ser Lys Thr Met Ser Gly Leu Xaa Cys Gln Ala 195 200 205Trp Asp Ser Gln Ser Pro His Ala His Gly Tyr Ile Pro Xaa Lys Phe 210 215 220Pro Xaa Lys Asn Leu Lys Xaa Asn Tyr Cys Xaa Asn Pro Asp Xaa Glu225 230 235 240Xaa Arg Pro Trp Cys Phe Thr Thr Asp Pro Xaa Lys Arg Trp Glu Xaa 245 250 255Cys Asp Ile Pro Arg Cys Thr Thr Pro Pro Pro Xaa Xaa Xaa Pro Thr 260 265 270Tyr Gln Cys Leu Lys Gly Xaa Gly Glu Asn Tyr Arg Gly Xaa Val Xaa 275 280 285Val Thr Val Ser Gly Xaa Thr Cys Gln Xaa Trp Ser Xaa Gln Thr Pro 290 295 300His Xaa His Asn Arg Thr Pro Glu Asn Phe Pro Cys Lys Asn Leu Xaa305 310 315 320Glu Asn Tyr Cys Arg Asn Pro Asp Gly Xaa Xaa Ala Pro Trp Cys Xaa 325 330 335Thr Thr Xaa Ser Gln Xaa Arg Trp Glu Tyr Cys Xaa Ile Pro Ser Cys 340 345 350Xaa Ser Ser Xaa Xaa Xaa Xaa Xaa Xaa Xaa Xaa Xaa Xaa Xaa Pro Xaa 355 360 365Glu Xaa Thr Pro Val Val Gln Xaa Cys Tyr Xaa Xaa Asp Gly Gln Ser 370 375 380Tyr Arg Gly Thr Ser Ser Thr Thr Xaa Thr Gly Lys Lys Cys Gln Ser385 390 395 400Trp Xaa Xaa Met Xaa Pro His Arg His Xaa Lys Thr Pro Glu Asn Xaa 405 410 415Pro Xaa Ala Gly Leu Xaa Met Asn Tyr Cys Arg Asn Pro Asp Xaa Asp 420 425 430Lys Gly Pro Trp Cys Xaa Thr Thr Asp Pro Ser Val Arg Trp Glu Tyr 435 440 445Cys Asn Leu Lys Xaa Cys Ser Xaa Thr Xaa Xaa Ser Val Val Xaa Xaa 450 455 460Pro Xaa Val Xaa Xaa Xaa Pro Xaa Xaa Xaa Xaa Xaa Ser Glu Xaa Asp465 470 475 480Cys Met Xaa Gly Asn Gly Lys Xaa Tyr Arg Gly Lys Xaa Ala Xaa Thr 485 490 495Xaa Xaa Gly Thr Pro Cys Gln Xaa Trp Ala Ala Gln Glu Pro His Arg 500 505 510His Ser Ile Phe Thr Pro Xaa Thr Asn Pro Arg Ala Xaa Leu Glu Lys 515 520 525Asn Tyr Cys Arg Asn Pro Asp Gly Asp Val Xaa Gly Pro Trp Cys Tyr 530 535 540Thr Thr Asn Pro Arg Lys Leu Tyr Asp Tyr Cys Asp Xaa Pro Xaa Cys545 550 555 560Ala Xaa Xaa Ser Xaa Phe Xaa Cys Gly Lys Pro Gln Val Glu Pro Lys 565 570 575Lys Cys Pro Gly Arg Val Val Gly Gly Cys Val Ala Xaa Pro His Ser 580 585 590Trp Pro Trp Gln Xaa Ser Leu Arg Thr Arg Phe Xaa Xaa Xaa Xaa Phe 595 600 605Cys Gly Gly Thr Leu Ile Xaa Pro Glu Trp Val Leu Thr Ala Ala His 610 615 620Cys Leu Glu Lys Ser Xaa Arg Pro Xaa Xaa Tyr Lys Val Ile Leu Gly625 630 635 640Ala His Xaa Glu Xaa Xaa Xaa Xaa Xaa Xaa Val Gln Glu Ile Xaa Val 645 650 655Xaa Xaa Leu Xaa Leu Glu Pro Xaa Xaa Xaa Asp Ile Ala Leu Leu Lys 660 665 670Leu Ser Xaa Pro Ala Xaa Ile Thr Asp Lys Val Ile Pro Ala Cys Leu 675 680 685Pro Ser Pro Asn Tyr Xaa Val Ala Asp Arg Thr Xaa Cys Xaa Ile Thr 690 695 700Gly Trp Gly Glu Thr Gln Gly Thr Phe Gly Ala Gly Xaa Leu Lys Glu705 710 715 720Ala Gln Leu Pro Val Ile Glu Asn Lys Val Cys Asn Arg Xaa Glu Xaa 725 730 735Leu Asn Xaa Arg Val Xaa Ser Thr Glu Leu Cys Ala Gly Xaa Leu Ala 740 745 750Gly Gly Xaa Asp Ser Cys Gln Gly Asp Ser Gly Gly Pro Leu Val Cys 755 760 765Phe Glu Lys Asp Lys Tyr Ile Leu Gln Gly Val Thr Ser Trp Gly Leu 770 775 780Gly Cys Ala Arg Pro Asn Lys Pro Gly Val Tyr Val Arg Val Ser Arg785 790 795 800Phe Val Xaa Trp Ile Glu Xaa Xaa Met Arg Asn Asn 805 810

Claims

1. An isolated nucleic acid comprising an expression cassette that comprises a polynucleotide sequence encoding a signal polypeptide operably linked to a polynucleotide sequence, wherein the polynucleotide sequence is as shown in SEQ ID NO:1.

2. An isolated nucleic acid comprising an expression cassette that comprises a polynucleotide sequence encoding an IgK signal polypeptide operably linked to a polynucleotide sequence encoding an anti-angiogenic polypeptide which comprises kringles 1-3 of plasminogen.

3. An isolated nucleic acid comprising an expression cassette that comprises a promoter and a polynucleotide sequence encoding a signal polypeptide operably linked to a polynucleotide sequence encoding an anti-angiogenic polypeptide as shown in SEQ ID NO:2.

4. An endothelial cell comprising recombinant expression cassette comprising a polynucleotide sequence encoding an IgK signal polypeptide operably linked to a polynucleotide sequence encoding an anti-angiogenic polypeptide which comprises an amino acid sequence substantially identical to kringles 1-3 of native plasminogen.

5. An endothelial cell comprising recombinant expression cassette comprising a polynucleotide sequence encoding a signal polypeptide operably linked to a polynucleotide sequence encoding an anti-angiogenic polypeptide wherein the anti-angiogenic polypeptide has an amino acid sequence as shown in SEQ ID NO:2.