Fusion polypeptides of human serum albumin and a therapeutically active polypeptide

1. A nucleic acid molecule comprising a polynucleotide encoding a fusion protein wherein said fusion protein comprises a hormone and a mature form of albumin, wherein (i) said fusion protein has a higher plasma stability than the unfused hormone, (ii) said fusion protein retains the therapeutic activity of the unfused hormone, (iii) and said mature form of albumin is located either at the N-terminus or C-terminus of said fusion protein.

2. The nucleic acid molecule of claim 1 , wherein said fusion protein comprises an N-terminal methionine.

3. The nucleic acid molecule of claim 1 , wherein said fusion protein comprises a peptide linker.

4. The nucleic acid molecule of claim 1 , wherein said fusion protein comprises a secretion signal sequence.

5. The nucleic acid molecule of claim 1 , wherein said hormone is fused to the N-terminal end of said mature form of albumin.

6. The nucleic acid molecule of claim 1 , wherein said hormone is fused to the C-terminal end of said mature form of albumin.

7. The nucleic acid molecule of claim 1 , which further comprises a heterologous polynucleotide.

8. The nucleic acid molecule of claim 7 , wherein said heterologous polynucleotide is a vector sequence.

9. The nucleic acid molecule of claim 7 , wherein said heterologous polynucleotide is a promoter sequence.

10. The nucleic acid molecule of claim 9 , wherein said promoter sequence is a promoter selected from:

(a) a hybrid promoter;

(b) a constitutive promoter;

(c) a regulatable promoter;

(d) a yeast phosphoglycerate kinase (PGK) promoter;

(e) a yeast glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GDP) promoter;

(f) a yeast lactase (LAC4) promoter;

(g) a yeast enolase (ENO) promoter;

(h) a yeast alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) promoter;

(i) a yeast phosphatase (PHO5) promoter;

(j) a lambda bacteriophage P L promoter;

(k) a lambda bacteriophage P R promoter;

(l) a tryptophan P trp promoter; and

(m) a lactose P lac promoter.

11. The nucleic acid molecule of claim 7 , wherein said heterologous polynucleotide is a selectable marker.

12. The nucleic acid molecule of claim 11 , wherein said selectable marker is a selectable marker selected from:

(a) the URA3 gene;

(b) geneticin resistance;

(c) metal iron resistance; and

(d) ampicillin resistance.

13. The nucleic acid molecule of claim 7 , wherein said heterologous polynucleotide is a region for termination of transcription.

14. The nucleic acid molecule of claim 1 , wherein said nucleic acid molecule is part of an expression cassette.

15. A vector comprising the nucleic acid molecule of claim 1 .

16. An isolated host cell comprising the nucleic acid molecule of claim 1 .

17. An isolated host cell comprising the vector of claim 15 .

18. The isolated host cell of claim 16 or 17 , wherein said isolated host cell is prokaryotic or eukaryotic.

19. The isolated host cell of claim 18 , wherein said isolated host cell is a yeast cell.

20. The isolated host cell of claim 19 , wherein said yeast cell is S. cerevisiae.

21. The isolated host cell of claim 18 , wherein said isolated host cell is an animal cell.

22. The isolated host cell of claim 21 , wherein said animal cell is a CHO cell or a COS cell.

23. The isolated host cell of claim 18 , wherein said isolated host cell is a fungi cell.

24. A method for producing a fusion protein comprising:

(a) culturing the isolated host cell of claim 16 under conditions suitable to produce the fusion protein encoded by said polynucleotide; and

(b) recovering said fusion protein.

25. A fusion protein produced by the method of claim 24 .