Item

Abstract

The present invention relates to a nucleic acid molecule encoding a peptide capable of being internalized into a cell, wherein said nucleic acid molecule comprises (a) a nucleic acid molecule encoding a peptide having the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2; (b) a nucleic acid molecule having the DNA sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1, wherein T is U if the nucleic acid molecule is RNA; (c) a nucleic acid molecule hybridizing under stringent conditions to the complementary strand of a nucleic acid molecule of (a) or (b), wherein the peptide encoded by said nucleic acid molecule has a cysteine at least at two positions selected from the group consisting of positions 1, 7 and 8 of SEQ ID NO: 2 and an arginine or a lysine at least at four positions selected from the groups consisting of position 2, 4, 6, 9 or 10 of SEQ ID NO: 2; (d) a nucleic acid molecule encoding a peptide having at least 70 sequence identity with that of SEQ ID NO: 2, wherein at least at two positions selected from the group consisting of positions 1, 7 and 8 of SEQ ID NO: 2 a cysteine is present and wherein at least at four positions selected from the groups consisting of position 2, 4, 6, 9 or 10 of SEQ ID NO: 2 an arginine or a lysine is present; or (e) a nucleic acid molecule degenerate with respect to the nucleic acid molecule of (c) or (d). The present invention also relates to a peptide encoded by the nucleic acid of the invention, a fusion molecule comprising the peptide of the invention and a composition comprising the peptide or the fusion molecule of the invention. Furthermore, the present invention relates to a method of detecting the internalization behaviour of a fusion molecule of the invention, the composition of the invention for treating and/or preventing a condition selected from cancer, enzyme deficiency diseases, infarcts, cerebral ischemia, diabetes, inflammatory diseases, infections such as bacterial, viral or fungal infections, autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematodes (SLE) or rheumatoid arthritis, diseases with amyloid-like fibrils such as Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD) or certain forms of myopathy.