Patent ID: 6585954
Filing Date: 2003-07-01
Classification: A01K,C12N,C12Q,G01N

Abstract:
A method of screening for candidate steroid sulfatase inhibitors which comprises the steps of:transforming cells which show hormone-dependent growth with a steroid sulfatase coding sequence or DNA selected from the group consisting of a coding sequence encoding a polypeptide which comprises the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:1, a coding sequence encoding a polypeptide which is at least 95% homologous to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO:1 and which has steroid sulfatase activity, DNA comprising the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO:2, and DNA which hybridizes to the DNA comprising the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO:2 under stringent conditions and which encodes a polypeptide having steroid sulfatase activity; culturing transformed cells in vitro in the presence of an estrogen compound and a test compound; culturing transformed cells in vitro in the presence of an estrogen compound but in the absence of said test compound; and measuring the growth of the transformed cells cultured in the presence of the test compound and the growth of the transformed cells cultured in the absence of the test compound, whereby a test compound that inhibits the growth of the transformed cells compared to the growth in the absence of the test compound is identified as a candidate steroid sulfatase inhibitor.