Patent ID: 6071696
Filing Date: 2000-06-06
Classification: A61K,C12N,C12Q,C40B,G01N

Abstract:
A method for identifying a compound that induces terminal differentiation in cancer cells comprising:a) incubating cancer cells with the compound; andb) measuring the biphasic expression of full-length melanoma differentiation associated gene mda-9 mRNA, encoding mda-9, a protein of 298 amino acids and a molecular weight of .about.34 kDa, wherein the full-length mda-9 mRNA expression is elevated 8-12 hours after incubation followed by reduced full-length mda-9 RNA expression 24-96 hours after incubation, the reduced expression of full-length mda-9 mRNA indicating that the compound induces terminal differentiation in cancer cells.