Antibodies and functional fragments thereof that specifically bind an RF-amide peptide or a precursor thereof
View Patent ↗The present invention relates to RF-amide peptides and their use for treating, preventing and curing neurological and metabolic medical disorders. The invention also relates to methods for modulating a G-protein coupled receptor and for identifying substances which modulate the receptor.
1. An antibody or functional fragment thereof which specifically binds to a polypeptide consisting of the amino acid sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO: 4.
2. A pharmaceutical composition comprising the antibody or functional fragment of claim 1 and a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier.
3. The antibody of functional fragment of claim 1 which is an antibody.
4. The antibody or functional fragment of claim 1 which is a functional fragment.
5. The antibody of claim 3 which is a monoclonal antibody.
6. The antibody of claim 3 which is a polyclonal antibody, a bispecific antibody or an anti-idiotypic antibody.
7. The functional fragment of claim 4 which is a Fab, a F(ab) 2 , an Fv, a single chain Fv antibody fragment or a dsFv antibody fragment.
8. The antibody of claim 3 which is a fully human antibody, a mouse antibody, a rabbit antibody, a chicken antibody, a human/mouse chimeric antibody or a humanized antibody.
9. A method for forming a complex between an antigenic polypeptide comprising the amino acid sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO: 4 and an antibody or functional fragment thereof which specifically binds to a polypeptide consisting of the amino acid sequence set forth in SEQ ID NO: 4 comprising contacting said polypeptide with said antibody or functional fragment.