Patent ID: 8071549

Claim:
A compound which is (I) a peptide consisting of 5 to 80 amino acid residues, said peptide comprising (i) (a) the putative FG loop (SEQ ID NO:1) of the second Fibronectin III (Fn3,2) module of the neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM), or (b) a fragment at least five amino acids long thereof, or (c) a substitution variant of said FG loop wherein said variant is at least 75% identical to said Fn3,2 FG loop (i) (a), or (ii) (a) the putative FG loop (SEQ ID NO:31) of the first Fibronectin III (Fn3 Î¼l) module of NCAM, or (b) a fragment at least five amino acids long thereof, or (iii) (a) the putative FG loop (SEQ ID NO:29) of the third Fibronection III (Fn3,3) module of L1, or (b) a fragment at least five amino acids long thereof, or (c) a substitution variant of said FG loop, wherein said variant is at least 75% identical to said FG loop (iii) (a), or (II) an oligomeric peptide consisting essentially of two or more monomers, which may be the same or different, and which independently consist of an amino acid sequence satisfying that of a peptide according to (I), or (III) a salt, ester or amide of the peptide of (I) or the oligomeric peptide of (II), wherein said compound is not a peptide consisting of the amino acid sequence AENQQKS (SEQ ID NO:4), or a salt, ester or amide thereof, said compound being in at least partially purified and soluble form and capable of binding to Fibroblast Growth Factor (FGF) receptor and capable of stimulating FGFR signaling.