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Science 13 June 1997:
Vol. 276. no. 5319, p. 1621
DOI: 10.1126/science.276.5319.1621g
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Thrombopoietin is a cytokine that promotes growth of megakaryocytes--cells in the bone marrow that give rise to platelets. Cwirla et al. (p. 1696) used several sophisticated screens to select small peptides that potently bind to and activate the thrombopoietin receptor. Although the sequences of these peptides are not present in thrombopoietin, one dimerized 14-amino acid peptide had a mean effective concentration (EC50) of 100 picomolar, essentially the same as that of the natural 332-amino acid cytokine. Thrombocytoppenia, the insufficiency of platelets circulating in the blood, is encountered after chemotherapy or bone marrow transplantation.




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