Composition exhibiting a von Willebrand factor (vWF) protease activity comprising a polypeptide chain with the amino acid sequence AAGGILHLELLV
The invention relates to vWF cleaving entities having a molecular weight of 180 kD, 170 kD, 160 kD, 120 kD or 110 kD and an N-terminal amino acid sequence of AAGGILHLELLV, vWF cleaving complexes and methods for their production.
1. An isolated polypeptide exhibiting vWF protease activity and vWF binding activity, having a molecular weight between about 180 kD and about 120 kD as determined by SDS-PAGE under reducing conditions and comprising the amino acid sequence AAGGILHLELLV (SEQ ID NO:1), wherein the isolated polypeptide is encoded by a nucleic acid present in a cDNA library obtained from poly A + RNA isolated from a human.
2. The isolated polypeptide according to claim 1 , wherein said sequence is located at the N-terminus of the peptide chain.
3. The isolated polypeptide according to claim 1 , wherein said peptide has a molecular weight of about 180 kD.
4. The isolated polypeptide according to claim 1 , wherein said peptide has a molecular weight of about 170 kD.
5. The isolated polypeptide according to claim 1 , wherein said peptide has a molecular weight of about 160 kD.
6. The isolated polypeptide according to claim 1 , wherein said peptide has a molecular weight of about 120 kD.
7. The isolated polypeptide according to claim 1 , wherein said polypeptide comprises the amino acid sequence AAGGILHLELLVAVGPDVFQAHQEDTERYVLTNLNIGAELLRDPSLGAQFRVHLVKMVI LTEPEGAPNITANLTSSLLSVCGWSQTINPEDDTDPGHADLVLYITRFDLELPDGNRQVR GVTQLGGACSPTWSCLITEDTGFDLGVTI (SEQ ID NO:4).
8. A composition comprising the isolated polypeptide of claim 1 .