Patent ID: 7973008

Claim:
A method of reducing the damage done by reactive oxygen species (ROS) in an animal in need thereof comprising administering to the animal an effective amount of a metal-binding peptide which does not have a metal ion bound to it or of a physiologically-acceptable salt of the peptide, the sequence of the peptide being: P 1 -P 2 , wherein: P 1 is: Xaa 1 Xaa 2 His or Xaa 1 Xaa 2 His Xaa 3 , the P 1 portion of the peptide being linear; Xaa 1 is the N-terminal amino acid of the peptide, the only substituents on the α-amino group of Xaa 1 are hydrogen, and Xaa 1 is glycine, alanine, valine, leucine, isoleucine, serine, threonine, aspartic acid, asparagine, glutamic acid, glutamine, lysine, hydroxylysine, histidine, arginine, ornithine, phenylalanine, tyrosine, tryptophan, cysteine, methionine, or α-hydroxymethylserine; Xaa 2 is alanine, β-alanine, valine, leucine, isoleucine, serine, threonine, aspartic acid, asparagine, glutamic acid, glutamine, lysine, hydroxylysine, histidine, arginine, ornithine, phenylalanine, tyrosine, tryptophan, cysteine, methionine, or α-hydroxymethylserine; Xaa 3 is glycine, alanine, valine, lysine, arginine, ornithine, aspartic acid, glutamic acid, asparagine, glutamine or tryptophan; and P 2 is an amino acid sequence which comprises the sequence of a Cu(I) binding site, and P 2 contains no more than 10 amino acids.