Patent ID: 7901909

Claim:
A nucleic acid molecule encoding a CD44 variant and which comprises the three additional nucleotides CAG encoding alanine at the 5′-end of exon v5 of the CD44 gene, selected from the group consisting of: (a) a nucleic acid molecule comprising or consisting of the sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1; (b) a nucleic acid molecule comprising a sequence having at least 95% identity to the entire sequence of (a), wherein said nucleic acid molecule retains the nucleotides 908-910 of SEQ ID NO: 1; (c) a fragment of (a) having at least 20 nucleotides, wherein said fragment retains the three additional nucleotides CAG in a region corresponding to the region of nucleotides 908-910 in SEQ ID NO: 1; (d) a nucleic acid molecule being complementary to (a) or (c); (e) a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide having the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2; (f) a nucleic acid molecule encoding a fragment of the polypeptide of (e) having at least 6 amino acids, wherein said nucleic acid molecule retains the three additional nucleotides CAG in a region corresponding to the region of nucleotides 908-910 in SEQ ID NO: 1; and (g) a nucleic acid molecule encoding a polypeptide having an amino acid sequence that is at least 95% identity to the entire sequence of SEQ ID NO:2, wherein said nucleic acid molecule retains the nucleotides 908-9101 of SEQ ID NO: 1.