Disclosed herein, are decoy peptides or polypeptides capable of neutralizing and/or inhibiting the binding of anti-Ro antibodies to a hERG potassium channel extracellular pore region, and pharmaceutical compositions containing the decoy peptides or polypeptides and methods of use.

This invention is in the field of treating or preventing inflammation in humans and animals and relates to pharmaceutical compositions and methods for treating or preventing various inflammatory conditions. In particular, the invention relates to compositions and methods for treating or preventing inflammatory conditions such as citrulline-related inflammatory diseases. The invention provides specific binding molecules directed against citrulline-containing epitopes for use in the therapy and prevention of inflammatory conditions.

Antigenic peptides that bind to MHC Class II molecules with the shared epitope referred to as HLA-DR molecules are disclosed. More specifically, are citrullinated antigenic peptides having an increased affinity for HLA-DR molecules and associated with rheumatoid arthritis. These novel peptides provide the basis for new methods of diagnosis and treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.

The present invention generally relates to the detection, treatment or prevention of disease states. Specifically, the present invention relates to the detection, treatment or prevention of amyloidosis or amyloid-associated diseases. The present invention further comprises methods and compositions comprising therapeutic vaccines, antisera and molecular constructs, comprising expression vectors and fusion proteins encoded therein.

This document relates to materials and methods for controlling ligand gated ion channel (LGIC) activity. For example, modified LGICs including at least one LGIC subunit having a modified ligand binding domain (LBD) and/or a modified ion pore domain (IPD) are provided. Also provided are exogenous LGIC ligands that can bind to and activate the modified LGIC, as well as methods of modulating ion transport across the membrane of a cell of a mammal, methods of modulating the excitability of a cell in a mammal, and methods of treating a mammal having a channelopathy.

Isolated C1q peptides, fusion proteins and compositions comprising such and fusion proteins comprising are provided. Isolated fusion proteins comprising X.sub.4WX.sub.5YX.sub.6 as defined herein and compositions comprising such are also provided. Methods of treating autoimmune disorders are provided.

This document relates to materials and methods for controlling ligand gated ion channel (LGIC) activity. For example, modified LGICs including at least one LGIC subunit having a modified ligand binding domain (LBD) and/or a modified ion pore domain (IPD) are provided. Also provided are exogenous LGIC ligands that can bind to and activate the modified LGIC, as well as methods of modulating ion transport across the membrane of a cell of a mammal, methods of modulating the excitability of a cell in a mammal, and methods of treating a mammal having a channelopathy.

The present disclosure provides for compositions and methods for identifying peptide classifiers. In one embodiment, a peptide classifier for diagnosing rheumatoid arthritis includes a composition comprising a plurality of molecules. Each molecule comprises a peptide having a sequence selected from SEQ ID NOS: 1-8861, wherein the plurality of molecules defines a classifier for rheumatoid arthritis.

The invention relates to methods for treating or preventing abnormal skin conditions in a human in need thereof, comprising administering a cell culture composition comprising a living culture of bacteria comprising at least one engineered strain that produces a recombinant polypeptide for therapeutic treatment of the abnormal skin condition. The invention also relates to pharmaceutical compositions containing, as the active principle, engineered microorganisms expressing non-vaccinogenic pharmacologically active recombinant therapeutic polypeptides in order to treat or prevent abnormal skin conditions.

The disclosed embodiments concern methods, devices, and systems for identifying candidate biomarkers useful for the diagnosis, prognosis, monitoring and screening and/or as targets for the treatment of diseases and conditions in subjects, in particular autoimmune and infectious diseases. The identification of candidate biomarkers is predicated on identifying discriminating peptides present on a peptide array, which can distinguish samples from different subjects having different health conditions by the binding patterns of antibodies present in the samples.