| abstract |
The invention relates to a single-chain oilgomeric polypeptide antagonist which binds to an extracellular ligand-binding domain of a cellular receptor of a type requiring binding of an oligomeric ligand to two or more receptor subunits to be activated, the polypeptide comprising at least two, typically structurally homologous, receptor-binding sites of which at least one is capable of binding to a ligand-binding domain of the cellular receptor and at least one is incapable of effectively binding to a ligand-binding domain of the cellular receptor, whereby the single-chain oligomeric polypeptide is capable of binding to the receptor, but incapable of activating the receptor; as well as to nucleotide sequences encoding such single-chain oligomeric polypeptides, expression vectors comprising such a nucleotide sequence, recombinant host cells comprising such a nucleotide sequence or expression vector, methods for producing the nucleotide sequences and polypeptides, pharmaceutical compositions comprising the single-chain oligomeric polypeptides, and use of the single-chain oligomeric polypeptides for the production of medicaments and in therapy. A preferred single-chain antagonist according to the invention is a TNF-α antagonist. |