Splice variants of CD40-receptor

Abstract

The present invention concerns six novel variants of alternative splicing of the CD40 receptor.

1 - 25 . (canceled)  
     
     
         26 . An isolated nucleic acid sequence encoding a CD40-variant polypeptide with the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:7.  
     
     
         27 . An isolated nucleic acid sequence complementary to the nucleic acid sequence of  claim 26 .  
     
     
         28 . The isolated nucleic acid sequence of  claim 26 , wherein said nucleic acid sequence comprises SEQ ID NO:6.  
     
     
         29 . An expression vector comprising the nucleic acid sequence of  claim 26  and control elements for the expression of the nucleic acid sequences in a suitable host.  
     
     
         30 . A host cell comprising the expression vector of  claim 29 .  
     
     
         31 . A pharmaceutical composition comprising the nucleic acid sequence of  claim 26  and a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier.  
     
     
         32 . A pharmaceutical composition comprising the expression control element of  claim 29  and a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier.  
     
     
         33 . A method for detecting the presence of at least one variant CD40 nucleic acid in a biological sample, the method comprising 
 (a) providing a probe that detects hybridizes to the nucleic acid of  claim 26;     (b) hybridizing said probe to nucleic acid material of said biological sample under conditions enabling formation of a hybridization complex; and    (c) detecting said hybridization complex, wherein the presence of the complex indicates the presence of a nucleic acid sequence encoding a CD40 variant product.    
     
     
         34 . The method of  claim 33 , wherein said method comprises determining the amount of said hybridization complexes and normalizing said amount to provide the level of the at least one variant nucleic acid sequence sin the sample.  
     
     
         35 . A method for determining the ratio between the level of the nucleic sequences of a CD40R variant in a first biological sample and the level of the original CD40R sequence from which the variant has been varied by the alternative splicing in a second biological sample, the method comprising 
 (a) determining the level of the CD40R variant nucleic acid sequence in the first biological sample according to the method of  claim 33;     (b) determining the CD40R original sequence in the second biological sample; and    (c) comparing the levels obtained in (a) and (b) to give said ratio.    
     
     
         36 . The method of  claim 35 , wherein said first and second biological samples are the same sample.  
     
     
         37 . The method of  claim 34 , wherein the nucleic acid material of said biological sample are mRNA.  
     
     
         38 . The method of  claim 36 , wherein the nucleic acid sequence is present in a nucleic acid chip.  
     
     
         39 . A method of making a CD40-variant polypeptide, the method comprising culturing the host cell of  claim 30  under conditions allowing for expression of said CD40-variant polypeptide encoded in said expression vector.  
     
     
         40  The method of  claim 39 , further comprising recovering said CD40-variant polypeptide.