Patent ID: 8609823

Claim:
A fibroblast growth factor 9 (FGF-9) variant comprising at least one amino acid substitution in the beta 8-beta 9 loop, wherein said FGF-9 variant is an antagonist; wherein said FGF-9 variant reduces proliferation of target cells having at least one FGF receptor subtype compared to the corresponding wild type FGF-9; wherein said FGF-9 variant has enhanced receptor specificity for the at least one receptor subtype compared to the corresponding wild type FGF-9 by decreasing the biological activity mediated by at least one receptor subtype while retaining the activity mediated through another receptor subtype; wherein said FGF-9 variant further comprises a truncation at the N-terminus, or at the C-terminus, or at both termini; and wherein said FGF-9 variant comprises the amino acid sequence selected from the sequences as set forth in SEQ ID NOS: 11, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17.