Henry, Here are excerpts from the claims of patent 5712094 showing the cytokines involved:
What is claimed is:
1. A method for measuring the ability of a compound to act as an
agonist of cytokine-mediated gene transcription comprising:
* (a) contacting the compound with a cytokine-responsive host cell
transfected with a DNA construct comprising:
(i) an oligonucleotide sequence comprising a regulatory element of the nucleotide sequence TTNx AA, operably linked to
(ii) a promoter, operably linked to
(iii) a heterologous gene, wherein N is independently selected
from A, T, C or G and x is 4, 5, 6 or 7, and wherein the DNA construct is operably linked in such a manner that the heterologous gene is under the transcriptional control of the promoter and oligonucleotide sequence when the oligonucleotide sequence is trranscriptionally activated in response to IL-2,IL-3, IL-4, IL-7, IL-9, IL-13, IL-15, G-CSF, GM-CSF, Epo or Tpo
under conditions in which expression of the heterologous gene is responsive to compounds which are agonists of cytokine-mediated gene transcription and
* (b) comparing the level of gene expression in step (a) with the level of gene expression from the host cell in the absence of the compound,wherein the ability of the compound to act as an agonist of cytokine-mediated gene transcription is measured as the amount of increase in the level of gene expression in step (a) compared to thelevel of gene expression from the host cell in the absence of the compound.
Claim 2 reads similarly except that the compound is considered to act as an antagonist of cytokine mediated transcription.
IL-4 is the cytokine produced by T-lymphocytes that appears to be a key mediator of allergic conditions such as asthma. See posts 14900, 14904. G-CSF, GM-CSF, Epo, and Tpo are the hematopoetic factors discussed on this thread in the last couple of days. Safe and effective designer molecules able to mimic or antagonize the effects of these cytokines could be used in the treatment of numerous disease processes. Looks like Ligand has a strong hand to play here. |
