TODAY’S PATENT – T-PA WITH GROWTH FACTOR DOMAIN SUBSTITUTIONS

This invention “t-PA with growth factor domain substitutions” was invented by Eileen R Mulvihill and Patrick J. O’Hara assigned to Zymogenetics Inc and was granted a patent on 4th April 1995 by USPTO bearing patent grant number US5403734A to the patentee. A plasminogen activator comprising a growth factor domain, a Kringle domain, and a serine protease domain is disclosed. The growth factor domain contains a plurality of substitutions of substantially consecutive amino acids as compared to the growth factor domain of native t-PA, the substitutions resulting in an increase in plasma half-life.

The patent describes a plasminogen activator consisting of a growth factor domain, a Kringle domain, and a serine protease domain with amino acid substitutions resulting in an increased plasma half-life. The growth factor domain can be from various proteins and have at least four consecutive amino acid substitutions. The plasminogen activator can also contain a substitution at position Cys(83) and have one or two Kringle domains without carbohydrates. The patent also includes DNA constructs encoding the plasminogen activator, expression vectors with a transcriptional promoter, and methods for producing the plasminogen activator using transfected or transformed host cells. Pharmaceutical compositions comprising the plasminogen activator with a carrier or diluent are also disclosed.