The present invention is directed to novel chimeric VEGF receptor proteins comprising
amino acid sequences derived from the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)
receptors flt-1 and KDR, including the murine homologue to the human KDR receptor
FLK-1, wherein said chimeric VEGF receptor proteins bind to VEGF and antagonize
the endothelial cell proliferative and angiogenic activity thereof. The present
invention is also directed to nucleic acids and expression vectors encoding these
chimeric VEGF receptor proteins, host cells harboring such expression vectors,
pharmaceutically acceptable compositions comprising such proteins, methods of preparing
such proteins and to methods utilizing such proteins for the treatment of conditions
associated with undesired vascularization.
