Toagosei Company, Ltd.

Tomoe Matsumoto

Masaji Okamoto

Mikio Niwa

Makoto Asano

Toshiaki Segawa

Hideo Suzuki

Mitsuya Hanatani

Ayako Yukita

Masabumi Shibuya

Tosiaki Segawa

A novel polypeptide is provided, which can be utilized to treat diseases accompanying neovascularization, such as solid tumors, and is useful as a low molecular weight VEGF inhibitor. The polypeptide contains immunoglobulin-like domain 1 and immunoglobulin-like domain 2 of the extracellular domain of the VEGF receptor KDR. Since it has smaller molecular weight than the conventional polypeptides with retaining VEGF inhibitory activity, it is expected that it can be readily expressed using recombinant DNA techniques and infiltrates into diseased sites more quickly.

VEGF-binding KDR polypeptide

An object of the present invention is to provide a low molecular weight VEGF inhibitor that can be utilized to treat diseases accompanying neovascularization, such as solid tumors. It was found that a polypeptide containing immunoglobulin-like domain 1 and immunoglobulin-like domain 2 but neither immunoglobulin-like main 6 nor immunoglobulin-like domain 7 of the extracellular domain of the VEGF receptor FLT possess VEGF inhibitory activity.

VEGF-binding polypeptide

A peptide corresponding to a portion of human vascular permeability factor (VPF) and a VPF monoclonal antibody recognizing the peptide are provided. The peptide of the invention is useful as an antigen for preparing a monoclonal antibody against VPF and as a reagent for biochemical analysis. The monoclonal antibody of the invention reactive with the above peptide is useful not only as a reagent for biochemical analysis but also as a diagnostic agent or therapeutic agent for various diseases such as cancer.

Peptides and monoclonal antibodies

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Ibaraki, Japan

Tomoe Matsumoto