Patent ID: 6750015
Filing Date: 2004-06-15
Classification: C12Q,G01N

Abstract:
A method to identify agonist ligands of progesterone receptors, comprising:a. contacting a progesterone receptor with a putative agonist ligand, wherein said progesterone receptor is selected from the group consisting of progesterone receptor A (PR-A) and progesterone receptor B (PR-B), under conditions wherein, in the absence of said putative agonist ligand, said progesterone receptor is not activated; b. detecting expression of at least one gene that is regulated by said progesterone receptor when said progesterone receptor is activated, said at least one gene being selected from the group consisting of: i. at least one gene that is selectively upregulated by PR-A chosen from a gene comprising a nucleic acid sequence selected from the group consisting of: SEQ ID NO:3 and SEQ ID NO:4; ii. a gene that is selectively downregulated by PR-A comprising a nucleic acid sequence represented by SEQ ID NO:5; iii. at least one gene that is selectively upregulated by PR-B chosen from a gene comprising a nucleic acid sequence selected from the group consisting of: SEQ ID NO:6, SEQ ID NO:8 and SEQ ID NO:9; iv. a gene that is selectively downregulated by PR-B comprising a nucleic acid sequence represented by SEQ ID NO:74 and v. at least one gene that is upregulated or downregulated by both PR-A and PR-B chosen from a gene comprising a nucleic acid sequence selected from the group consisting of: SEQ ID NO:84, SEQ ID NO:85, and SEQ ID NO:87; and, c. comparing the expression of said at least one gene in the presence and in the absence of said putative agonist ligand, wherein detection of regulation of the expression of said at least one gene in the manner associated with activation of said progesterone receptor as set forth in (b) indicates that said putative agonist ligand is a progesterone receptor agonist.