Patent ID: 8017728

Claim:
A method of treating ischemia in a mammal comprising administering to the animal an effective amount of a linear metal-binding peptide which does not have a metal ion bound to it, or 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 ; Xaa 1 is glycine, alanine, valine, leucine, isoleucine, serine, threonine, aspartic acid, isoaspartic acid, asparagine, glutamic acid, isoglutamic acid, glutamine, lysine, hydroxylysine, histidine, arginine, ornithine, phenylalanine, tyrosine, tryptophan, cysteine, methionine, or α-hydroxymethylserine, and the only substituents on the α-amino group of Xaa 1 are hydrogen; Xaa 2 is glycine, 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; and Xaa 3 is glycine, alanine, valine, leucine, isoleucine, lysine, histidine, arginine, ornithine, aspartic acid, glutamic acid, asparagine, glutamine or tryptophan; P 2 is a peptide sequence which comprises a sequence of a Cu(I) binding site, and P 2 contains no more than 10 amino acids; and optionally, the terminal —COOH of the peptide is substituted to produce —COR 2 , wherein R 2 is —NH 2 , —NHR 1 , —N(R 1 ) 2 , —OR 1 or —R 1 , wherein R 1 is an alkyl, aryl or heteroaryl.