Synthetic peptides, antibodies against them and their use

The invention relates to peptides, to antibodies produced with their help and to the use of such peptides and antibodies for therapeutic and diagnostic purposes. The present invention is directed to the generation of antibodies which preferentially bind to fibrinogen fragments E1, E2 and E3, but exhibit little or no cross-reactivity against fibrin monomer and fibrinogen. Thus, the invention provides synthetic peptides containing defined amino acid sequences corresponding to the carboxy terminal regions of the E fragments which arise as a result of plasmin cleavage of fibrin and fibrinogen. The synthetic peptides may be synthesized chemically, or through genetic manipulations, and may contain additional amino acid sequences which are not contiguous with the defined E fragment sequences.