Patent ID: 7199224

Claim:
An isolated antibody that binds to a polypeptide comprising an amino acid sequence selected from the group consisting of: (a) the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:2; (b) the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:2 from amino acid 215 to amino acid 477; (c) the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:4; (d) an amino acid sequence that is at least 90% identical to the amino acid sequence of any of (a)–(c), such that a polypeptide consisting of said amino acid sequence is capable of converting TNF-α from the 26 kD form to the 17 kD form; (e) a fragment of SEQ ID NO:2 such that a polypeptide with an amino acid sequence consisting of said fragment is capable of converting TNF-α from the 26 kD form to the 17 kD form.