Use of osteopontin for the treatment and/or prevention of neurologic diseases

1. A method of treating or preventing chemotherapy-induced neuropathy, comprising administering an effective amount of osteopontin, or an agonist of osteopontin activity to a patient in need thereof.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein osteopontin is selected from the group consisting of:

a) a polypeptide comprising SEQ ID NO: 1;

b) a polypeptide comprising amino acids 1 to 168 or 170 of SEQ ID NO: 1;

c) a polypeptide comprising amino acids 1 to 16 and 170 to 314 of SEQ ID NO: 1;

d) a polypeptide comprising amino acids 170 to 314 of SEQ ID NO: 1;

e) a polypeptide comprising SEQ ID NO: 2;

f) a polypeptide comprising SEQ ID NO: 3

g) a mutein of any of (a) to (f), wherein the amino acid sequence has at least 40% or 50% or 60% or 70% or 80% or 90% identity to at least one of the sequences in (a) to (f);

h) a mutein of any of (a) to (f) which is encoded by a DNA sequence which hybridizes to the complement of the native DNA sequence encoding any of (a) to (f);

i) a mutein of any of (a) to (f) wherein any changes in the amino acid sequence are conservative amino acid substitutions to the amino acid sequences in (a) to (f); and

j) a salt or an isoform, fused protein, functional derivative or active fraction or circularly permutated derivative of any of (a) to (f).

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein osteopontin is fused to a carrier molecule, a peptide or a protein that promotes the crossing of the blood brain barrier.

4. The method according to claim 2 , wherein osteopontin is PEGylated.

5. The method according to claim 3 , wherein the fused protein comprises an immunoglobulin (Ig) fusion.

6. A method of treating or preventing chemotherapy-induced neuropathy, comprising administering an effective amount of osteopontin, or an agonist of osteopontin activity and simultaneously, sequentially or separately an interferon to a patient in need thereof.

7. The method according to claim 6 , wherein the interferon is interferon-β.

8. The method according to claim 6 wherein osteopontin is administered in an amount of 0.001 to 100 mg/kg of body weight, or 1 to 10 mg/kg of body weight, or 5 mg/kg of body weight.