Patent ID: 6878529

Claim:
An isolated and/or purified polynucleotide comprising one or more of: (a) a polynucleotide encoding a polypeptide comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2; (b) a polynucleotide comprising a nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1 or SEQ ID NO: 5; (c) a polynucleotide encoding a soluble secreted endopeptidase (SEP) polypeptide encoded by the human cDNA contained in NCIMB 41110; (d) a polynucleotide comprising a nucleotide sequence that has at least 95% identity to the polynucleotide of (a) (b) or (c) and which encodes a naturally occurring SEP that cleaves the synthetic peptide substrate comprising the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 8 at the Arg-Val bond; or (e) the full complement to the polynucleotide of any one of (a) to (d); and wherein said isolated and/or purified polynucleotide is not genomic.