Apoptosis-related compounds and their use

Apoptosis-related antigenic compounds comprising an exposed antigenic site having the amino acid sequence 1 SEQ ID NO: 1: Glu Asp Phe Asn Leu Gly Asp Ala Leu Asp 1 5 10 or a functionally equivalent sequence comprising at least the sequence Ala Leu Asp are disclosed. Further, several applications and uses based on such compounds are included, such as use of the compounds in medicaments, nucleic acid sequences encoding the amino-acid sequence of such a peptide compound or protein fragment comprising the C-terminal amino acid sequence Ala Leu Asp, anti-sense nucleic acid sequence, vector comprising such a nucleic acid sequence, antibody or antigen-binding peptide recognizing such an antigenic compound and use thereof in a medicament, agents regulating the liberation of protein fragments comprising the amino-acid sequence SEQ ID NO: 1 or functionally equivalent sequences comprising the C-terminal amino acid sequence Ala Leu Asp, a method of determining the occurrence of cell apoptosis in a sample of biological material, especially in the diagnosis of degenerative diseases and cancer, or monitoring of the effect of therapy, a method of treating diseases with involvement of apoptosis, such as cancer and degenerative diseases, a method of creating cancer cells, and as carrier for prophylactic, therapeutic or diagnostic use.