May 1 /PRNewswire/ -- Variagenics, Inc. (Nasdaq: VGNX - news), a leader in pharmacogenomics, the science that correlates individual genetic variance with drug response, today announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued U.S. Patent No. 6,218,120 entitled ``Methods for detecting human methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) allelic variants.'' Assigned to McGill University in Montreal, Canada, the patent is the second issued MTHFR-related patent that has been exclusively licensed through McGill's Office of Technology Transfer to Variagenics under the terms of a March 25, 1999 licensing agreement. In connection with the licensing arrangement, Variagenics is supporting research in the laboratory of Professor Rima Rozen at the McGill University Health Center (MUHC). Dr. Rozen, who cloned the MTHFR gene and subsequently identified variant forms of the gene that affect folate metabolism, has been studying the importance of MTHFR in a variety of diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular disease and neurological disorders. The MTHFR research and issued patents play an integral role in Variagenics' pharmacogenomic pathway strategy, which considers that more than one gene is involved in an individual's response to drugs and diagnostics.
In considering the folate metabolism pathway, the MTHFR gene has been shown to affect blood levels of homocysteine and folates, which are associated with the risk of a number of diseases and disorders including cancer and cardiovascular and central nervous system diseases. These patents claim methods for determining MTHFR levels based upon genotype, as well as methods for associating MTHFR deficiency with the risk of diseases influenced by folic acid metabolism, or the prognosis of patients with these diseases. Variagenics is working to apply this information to the development of specific genetic diagnostic tests that would be used to determine the therapeutic benefit of treatment regimens for patients with such disorders.
``The MTHFR patents and our research collaboration with McGill serve as a foundation for an important diagnostic development program,'' said Taylor J. Crouch, Variagenics President and CEO. ``We believe that MTHFR, because of its key association with a variety of diseases, is useful in both pharmacogenomics and disease risk assessment.''
``In our efforts to correlate genetic variance with drug response, we have been investigating pharmacologically important pathways. MTHFR is a key enzyme and plays a central role in the folate pathway,'' said Vincent P. Stanton, M.D., Vice President and Principal Scientist at Variagenics. ``Folate metabolism plays an important role in both pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic behavior of a variety of drugs used to treat cancer, cardiovascular disease and central nervous system disorders, including schizophrenia.''
Background on Patent
U.S. Patent No. 6,218,120 is the second in a series of patented inventions that involve MTHFR. This patent provides a method for identifying an individual who has an MTHFR allele variant. The method includes genotyping a nucleotide sequence obtained from that individual to determine whether an allele variant of the gene is present in the sample. The patent further describes that certain MTHFR variants are associated with cardiovascular, coronary and arterial and neurological disorders as well as cancer and osteoporosis. The first U.S. Patent No. 6,074,821 entitled ``cDNA for Human Methylenetetrahydrofolate Reductase'' claims a method for diagnosing MTHFR deficiency in a patient by analyzing the nucleotide sequence of the MTHFR gene whereby certain allelic variants are associated with diseases and disorders. These patents together describe Variagenics' strategy of applying pharmacogenomics to the development of diagnostic and therapeutic products, marketed or in development, affecting the folate metabolism pathway. |
