Patent EP-1416279-B1 (EP)
Inventor: BUCHHOLZ MALTE
IPC: G01N33/574
Filed: 2003-10-29
Granted: 2008-12-31
Abstract: Determining pancreatic tumor in patient, comprising obtaining biological sample from patient, detecting in the sample an amount of nucleic acid encoding UKW or amount of polypeptide UKW, and comparing amount of nucleic acid or polypeptide with predetermined standard value indicating decision line for tumor-induced or non-tumor-induced UKW expression or presence in cell, is new. Determining (M1) the presence or absence of pancreatic cancer or tumor in a patient, comprising: (a) obtaining a biological sample from a patient; (b) detecting in the sample an amount of nucleic acid encoding UKW or an amount of polypeptide UKW; and (c) comparing the amount of nucleic acid or polypeptide with a predetermined standard value indicating the decision line for tumor-induced or non-tumor-induced UKW expression or presence in the cell and thus determining the presence or absence of pancreatic cancer in the patient. Alternatively, the method comprises: (a) incubating a sample of a patient suspected of suffering from pancreatic cancer, chosen from body fluid, of cells or of cell extracts or cell culture supernatants of the cells, where the sample contains nucleic acid with a nucleic acid probe chosen from the nucleic acid having a 5120 base pair sequence (S1), given in the specification or a nucleic acid complementary to (S1), and nucleic acids, which hybridizes with one of the above mentioned nucleic acids; and (b) detecting hybridization, preferably by means of a further binding partner of the nucleic acid of the sample and/or the nucleic acid probe or by x-ray radiograph. Independent claims are also included for the following: (1) determining (M2) whether or not a test sample of tissue or fluid of a patient contains pancreatic tumor cells or is derived from pancreatic tumor cells, where the test sample and a second sample originating from non-pancreatic-tumor cells from the same individual or a different individual of the same species are used, comprising: (a) incubating each respective sample under stringent hybridization conditions with a nucleic acid probe which is chosen from a nucleic acid sequence having (S1) or its fragment, a nucleic acid sequence which is complementary to (S1) and a nucleic acid sequence, which hybridizes under stringent conditions with (S1) or its complementary sequence; (b) determining the approximate amount of hybridization of each respective sample with the probe; and (c) comparing the approximate amount of hybridization of the test sample to an approximate amount of hybridization of the second sample to identify whether or not the test sample contains a greater amount of the specific nucleic acid or mixture of nucleic acids than does the second sample; (2) screening (M3) method for identifying a compound which inhibits the biological activity of the UKW polypeptide, comprising: (a) contacting the polypeptide with a compound or several of compounds under conditions which allow interaction of the compound with the polypeptide; and (b) detecting the interaction between the compound or several of compounds with the polypeptide; (3) screening (M4) method for identifying a compound which either inhibits the biological activity of the UKW polypeptide or inhibits the transcription or translation of the UKW gene, comprising: (a) contacting the compound or several of the compounds with a host cell in which invasiveness is mediated by expression of UKW; and (b) detecting the interaction between the compound or several of compounds with the host cell; (4) screening (M5) method for identifying a compound, which is an antagonist of a UKW polypeptide, comprising: (a) contacting the UKW polypeptide with a compound under conditions, which allow interaction of the compound with the polypeptide; (b) determining a first level of activity of the polypeptide determining a second level of activity of the polypeptide expressed in a host, which has not been contacted with the compound; and (c) quantitatively relating the first level of activity with the second level of activity, wherein when the first level of activity is less than the second level of activity, the compound is identified as an antagonist of the polypeptide; (5) an antibody (I) against the UKW polypeptide having a 373 amino acid sequence (S3), given in the specification; (6) a pharmaceutical composition (II) for inhibiting the proliferation and/or invasive potential of pancreatic tumor cells comprising (I) and a carrier; and (7) a kit (III) for diagnosis of a pancreatic tumor comprising (I). ACTIVITY : Cytostatic. MECHANISM OF ACTION : Inhibitor of proliferation and/or invasive potential of pancreatic tumor cells (claimed); Inhibitor of pancreatic tumor progression in vivo. No biological data is given.