Patent ID: 7393534

Claim:
A purified polypeptide selected from the group consisting of: (a) a purified polypeptide which comprises SEQ ID NO: 3, 4, 6, or 7; (b) a purified polypeptide which comprises SEQ ID NOs: 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7; (c) a purified polypeptide which comprises an amino acid sequence which has at least 90% identity to SEQ ID NO: 29 as determined by a BLAST 2.0 algorithm set to default parameters; and (d) a purified polypeptide which comprises a variant of an amino acid sequence comprising SEQ ID NO: 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7, wherein said variant has only amino acid substitutions of similar polarity relative to SEQ ID NO:3, 4, 5, 6 and 7, respectively; and wherein said peptide of (a), (b), (c), or (d) stimulates release of interleukin 12 from dendritic cells, said dendritic cells having been isolated from a mammal within 10 hours of assaying said ability.