Patent ID: 9476870
Filing Date: 2016-10-25
CPC Classification: C12Q,G01N

Claim Text:
1. A method of screening candidate compounds having a molecular weight less than 1,000 grams per mole that modulates mature myostatin mRNA untranslated region (UTR)-regulated translation, comprising: (a) contacting a compound having a molecular weight less than 1,000 grams per mole with a first human cell engineered to express a first reporter polypeptide translated from a first RNA transcript comprising a first reporter gene coding sequence operably linked to a first full-length 5′ UTR and a first full-length 3′ UTR, wherein the first 5′ UTR and the first 3′ UTR are each from the mature myostatin mRNA and the first 5′ UTR is upstream of the first reporter gene coding sequence and the first 3′ UTR is downstream of the first reporter gene coding sequence, wherein the first reporter gene coding sequence is not the myostatin mRNA; and (b) contacting the compound with a second human cell engineered to express a second reporter polypeptide translated from a second RNA transcript comprising the first reporter gene coding sequence operably linked to a second full-length 5′ UTR and a second full-length 3′ UTR, wherein the second 5′ UTR and the second 3′ UTR are each from a mRNA different from the mature myostatin mRNA and the second 5′ UTR is upstream of the first reporter gene coding sequence and the second 3′ UTR is downstream of the first reporter gene coding sequence; and (c) detecting the level of expression of the first and second reporter polypeptides, wherein: (i) an alteration in the level of expression of the first reporter polypeptide in the presence of the compound relative to the level of expression of the first reporter polypeptide in the absence of the compound, and (ii) no alteration in the level of expression of the second reporter polypeptide in the presence of the compound relative to the level of expression of the second reporter polypeptide in the absence of the compound, indicates that the compound modulates mature myostatin mRNA UTR-regulated translation.