In accordance with the present invention, there are provided novel Death Domain
(DD), Death Effector Domain (DED) and NB-ARC domain proteins. The invention also
provides nucleic acid molecules encoding DD, DED and NB-ARC domain proteins, vectors
containing these nucleic acid molecules and host cells containing the vectors.
The invention also provides antibodies that can specifically bind to invention
DDs, DEDs or NB-ARC domains. Such DDs, DEDs and NB-ARC domains and/or anti-DD,
anti-DED or anti-NB-ARC domain antibodies are useful for discovery of drugs that
suppress infection, autoimmunity, inflammation, allergy, allograft rejection, sepsis,
and other diseases.