Patent ID: 7507718

Claim:
A SAEP II peptide dimer, wherein the peptide dimer is essentially in the form of (a) a dimer of formula (I) NH 2 -A-Cys1-B-Cys2-C—COOH NH 2 -A′-Cys1-B′-Cys2-C′—COOH wherein Cys1 and Cys2 are each a cysteine amino acid; wherein the two Cys1 residues are linked together through a disulphide bond and the two Cys2 residues are linked together through a disulphide bond; and/or (b) a dimer of formula (II) NH 2 -A-Cys1-B-Cys2-C—COOH HOOC—C′-Cys2-B′-Cys1-A′-NH 2 wherein Cys1 and Cys2 are each a cysteine amino acid; wherein the Cys1 residues are linked to the Cys2 residues through intermolecular disulphide bonds; wherein A and A′ independently are a peptide moiety of from 2 to 5 amino acid residues, in which at least 2 amino acid residues are independently selected from Lys, Hyl (hydroxy-Lysine), Arg and His; wherein B and B′ independently are a peptide moiety of from 3 to 7 amino acid residues, which comprise at least two amino acid residues independently selected from Val, Leu, Ile, Phe, Tyr and Trp; and wherein C and C′ are optional and are independently an amino acid residue or a peptide moiety of from 2 to 3 amino acid residues; provided that the cationic amino acid residues/hydrophobic amino acid residues ratio (cat/hydroph ratio) of the dimer is from 0.4 to 2.