Patent ID: 9217011
Filing Date: 2015-12-22
Classification: C07K

Abstract:
1. A non-natural, thermodynamically stable, proteinaceous scaffold consisting of three non-covalently associated peptides, wherein each peptide comprises less than 50 amino acid residues and wherein each peptide sequence comprises between 2 and 7 consecutive heptad repeats of the formula cxxcxxx (SEQ ID NO: 10), wherein the characters “c” and “x” denote respectively “core” and “non-core” amino acid residues, and wherein: (i) a) all, or all except one of the c-residues are isoleucine amino acid residues, the remaining c-residue being a natural or non-natural amino acid residue other than isoleucine and proline; b) each x-residue is an alanine amino acid residue; c) the said peptide sequences associate into trimers by way of their heptad repeats forming triple-stranded, parallel, alpha-helical coiled coils wherein the said c-residues form the core; and d) the coiled coil-forming peptide sequences remain associated under physical conditions that are different from physiological conditions being a pH of 7, a temperature of 37° C. and an ionic strength of 0.15 molar; or ii) the peptide sequences having the above features (a), (c) and (d) comprise heptad repeats selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NO: 1, SEQ ID NO: 2, SEQ ID NO: 3 and SEQ ID NO: 4.