Patent ID: 6432628
Filing Date: 2002-08-13
Classification: A61K,C12N

Abstract:
A method for identifying a compound that inhibits or enhances caspase-14 aspartic acid-specific proteolytic activity, comprising:a) contacting a sample containing a caspase-14 polypeptide or functional fragment thereof with the compound, wherein said caspase-14 polypeptide has greater than 80% identity with SEQ ID NO:2 when aligned by the GAP algorithm using default gap weights, and wherein said functional fragment of a caspase-14 polypeptide includes SEQ ID NO:64 and comprises at least about 13 amino acids, and said fragment has greater than 92% identity with SEQ ID NO:2 when aligned by the GAP algorithm using default gap weights; and b) determining the aspartic acid-specific proteolytic activity of said caspase-14 polypeptide or functional fragment thereof, wherein a change in aspartic acid-specific proteolytic activity indicates the compound that modulates caspase-14 activity, and wherein said aspartic acid-specific proteolytic activity is an activity of the polypeptide set forth in SEQ ID NO:2.