Patent ID: 7037648
Filing Date: 2006-05-02
Classification: G01N

Abstract:
1. A method for predicting the pharmacological effect a drug candidate compound would have in a cell, tissue, or organ that expresses a protein, comprising: a) modulating, by somatic gene transfer, expression of the protein in host cells; b) comparing the phenotype of the host cells in which expression of the protein has been modulated to the phenotype of control host cells in which expression of the protein has not been modulated; and c) analyzing the result of expression of the protein by correlating the result of expression of the modified protein to the result of expression of a corresponding native protein, wherein a result of expression of the protein whose expression modulated in step (a) mimics one or more of the effects of the drug candidate compound, and wherein the phenotype is propagation of an electrical charge, pattern of electrical signaling, contraction, growth, blebbing or budding, pycnotic transformation, kinesis, cell death, differentiation, replication, transcription, translation, protein processing, adhesion, oncogenetic transformation, enzymatic catalysis, or functional modification.