Claims
- 1. An isolated retrocyclin peptide.
- 2. The isolated retrocyclin peptide according to claim 1, wherein said peptide is encoded by one or more primate genetic sequences.
- 3. The isolated retrocyclin peptide according to claim 2, wherein said peptide is encoded by one or more human genetic sequences.
- 4. The isolated retrocyclin peptide according to claim 1, wherein said peptide is linear.
- 5. The isolated retrocyclin peptide according to claim 1, wherein said peptide is circular.
- 6. The isolated retrocyclin according to claim 1, wherein said peptide is two linked nonapeptides, wherein each nonapeptide sequence is independently selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NO: 19 to SEQ ID NO: 64; and SEQ ID NO: 74 to SEQ ID NO: 119.
- 7. A cyclic polypeptide comprising the amino acid sequence: X1 X2 X3 X4 X5 X6 X7 X8 X9 X10 X11 X12 X13 X14 X15 X16 X17 X18 wherein X1 and X18 are linked through a peptide bond, disulfide crosslinks are formed between at least one of: X3 and X16; X5 and X14, and X7 and X12 with the proviso that when such a crosslink is present, the crosslinked amino acids are both cysteines; at least about three of amino acids X1 to X18 are arginine or lysine; X2, X5, X11, X15 are aliphatic amino acids; and X1, X10 and X17 are glycine or alanine.
- 8. The cyclic polypeptide according to claim 7, wherein three pairs of cysteines are crosslinked.
- 9. The cyclic polypeptide of claim 7, wherein said polypeptide comprises the amino acid sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO: 1-10.
- 10. The cyclic polypeptide of claim 7, wherein said polypeptide comprises the amino acid sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO: 1, 2, 5 or 8.
- 11. The cyclic polypeptide of claim 1, and a pharmaceutically acceptable excipient.
- 12. An isolated nucleic acid encoding a primate retrocyclin or a peptide set forth in SEQ ID NO: 1-10.
- 13. An isolated nucleic acid according to claim 12, wherein said retrocyclin is human.
- 14. The isolated nucleic acid according to claim 13, wherein said nucleic acid comprises the sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO: 11, SEQ ID NO: 119, SEQ ID NO: 121, or SEQ ID NO: 123.
- 15. A method for preventing retroviral infection in a cell, the method comprising:
administering an effective dose of a circular minidefensin or retrocyclin to said cell. :
- 16. The method according to claim 14, wherein said cell is of a type that is susceptible to bacterial or viral infection.
- 17. A method for killing microbial organisms, the method comprising:
administering an effective dose of retrocyclin to said microbial organisms.
- 18. A method for administering retrocyclin as a therapeutic agent to a patient with an established microbial or viral infection.
- 19. A method for administering retrocyclin as a prophylactic agent to prevent a microbial or viral infection in a patient at risk of developing such infection.
STATEMENT AS TO FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH
[0001] This invention was made with government support under grant number AI22839 awarded by the National Institutes of Health. The government has certain rights in the invention.
Provisional Applications (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
|
60284855 |
Apr 2001 |
US |
Continuations (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
PCT/US02/12353 |
Apr 2002 |
US |
Child |
10141645 |
May 2002 |
US |