Use of osteopontin for the treatment and/or prevention of neurologic diseases

Abstract

The invention relates to the use of osteopontin, or of an agonist of osteopontin activity, for treatment or prevention of a neurologic diseases.

1 . A method for treating a neurologic disease, comprising: 
 delivering a medicament to an appropriate site of action of the neurologic disease in a patient in need, wherein said medicament comprises osteopontin, or an agonist of osteopontin activity, optionally together with a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier.    
     
     
         2 . A method in accordance with  claim 1 , wherein said delivering step comprises administering to a patient in need thereof a nucleic acid molecule that comprises a nucleic acid sequence encoding a polypeptide comprising an amino acid sequence selected from the group consisting of: 
 (a) a polypeptide comprising SEQ ID NO: 1;    (b) a polypeptide comprising amino acids 1 to 168 or 17 of SEQ ID NO: 1;    (c) a polypeptide comprising amino acids 1 to 16 and 170 to 314 of SEQ ID NO: 1;    (d) a polypeptide comprising amino acids 170 to 314 of SEQ ID NO: 1;    (e) a polypeptide comprising SEQ ID NO: 2;    (f) a polypeptide comprising SEQ ID NO: 3;    (g) a mutein of any of (a) to (f), wherein the amino acid sequence has at least 40% or 50% or 60% or 70% or 80% or 90% identity to at least one of the sequences in (a) to (f);    (h) a mutein of any of (a) to (f) which is encoded by a DNA sequence which hybridizes to the complement of the native DNA sequence encoding any of (a) to (f) under moderately stringent conditions or under highly stringent conditions;    (i) a mutein of any of (a) to (f) wherein any changes in the amino acid sequence are conservative amino acid substitutions to the amino acid sequences in (a) to (f); and    (j) an isoform, fused protein, functional derivative, active fraction or circularly permutated derivative of any of (a) to (f).    
     
     
         3 . The method according to  claim 2 , wherein the nucleic acid molecule further comprises an expression vector sequence.  
     
     
         4 . A method according to  claim 2  for gene therapy.  
     
     
         5 . A method in accordance with  claim 1 , wherein said delivering step comprises administering to a patient in need thereof a vector for inducing and/or enhancing the endogenous production of osteopontin, or an agonist of osteopontin activity, in a cell.  
     
     
         6 . The method according to  claim 5  for gene therapy.  
     
     
         7 . A method in accordance with  claim 1 , wherein said delivering step comprises administering to a patient in need thereof a cell that has been genetically modified to produce osteopontin, or an agonist of osteopontin activity.