Patent ID: 7847058

Claim:
A purified compound capable of binding to the neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM) homophylic binding site composed of the Ig1, Ig2 and Ig3 modules, wherein said compound is capable of i) binding to the Ig1 module of NCAM at said NCAM homophylic binding site, and thereby mimicking and/or modulating the interaction between the Ig1 and Ig3 modules of NCAM, wherein said modules are from two individual NCAM molecules of opposing contacting cells, and/or ii) binding to the Ig3 module of NCAM at said NCAM homophylic binding site, and thereby mimicking and/or modulating the interaction between the Ig3 and Ig1 modules of NCAM, wherein said modules are from two individual NCAM molecules of opposing contacting cells, and/or iii) binding to the Ig2 module of NCAM at said NCAM homophylic binding site, and thereby mimicking the interaction between Ig2 and Ig3 modules of NCAM, wherein said modules are from two individual NCAM molecules of opposing contacting cells, and/or iv) binding to the Ig3 module of NCAM at said NCAM homophylic binding site, and thereby mimicking and/or modulating the binding between the Ig3 and Ig2 modules of NCAM, wherein said modules are from two individual NCAM molecules of opposing contacting cells, and/or v) binding to the Ig2 module of NCAM at said NCAM homophylic binding site, and thereby mimicking and/or modulating the interaction between the Ig2 and Ig2 modules of NCAM, wherein said modules are from two individual NCAM molecules of opposing contacting cells, said compound being (I) (a) a peptide sequence identified as SEQ ID NO: 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 40 or 41, (b) a peptide which is a fragment of (a), consisting of at least 5 amino acids, (c) a peptide consisting of a peptide sequence according to (a) and up to 10 additional amino acids, (d) a peptide which differs from (a), (b) or (c) solely by one or more amino acid substitutions, but (d1) comprises at least a five amino acid fragment of a peptide of (a) or (d2) comprises a sequence at least 85% identical to a peptide of (a), or (e) a peptide sequence identified as SEQ ID NO:5; or (II) an oligomer or polymer comprising a plurality of peptides according to (I) above, which oligomer or polymer either consists of a plurality of peptides according to (I) above, or comprises a non-NCAM carrier moiety to which said peptides are attached.