[Design of chimeric proteins based on a pentameric superhelical fragment of COMP. II. Properties of a hybrid, containing an VNTR (MUC1) antigen of human tumors].

An oligomeric chimeric protein DB-2 was constructed, to design drugs with antitumor activity and to develop highly sensitive immunospecific tests for the diagnostics of a wide variety of malignant epithelial cells in humans. DB-2 contains an immunodominant site of tetanus toxin and a fragment of the locus of the human tumor-associated antigen MUC1 with a variable number of tandem repeats. A pentameric superhelical fragment of the human cartilage oligomeric matrix protein was used as an oligomerization matrix. The expression of the protein in Escherichia coli cells was studied, a method for its purification was developed, and its main biochemical properties were determined. The English version of the paper: Russian Journal of Bioorganic Chemistry, 2004, vol. 30, no. 1; see also http://www.maik.ru.