Patent ID: 7662793

Claim:
A pharmaceutical composition for decreasing expression of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) in a cell in vivo, comprising an antisense composition comprising a nucleic acid comprising an expression cassette of plasmid pNGVL1-EGFR-AS deposited under ATCC Accession Number PTA-7774, which includes a human U6 small ribonucleoprotein (snRNP) Polymerase III (Pol III) transcribed gene in which no transcribed portion of the snRNP Pol III-transcribed gene is required for transcription of the gene, the transcribed 5′ hairpin structure of the snRNP Pol III-transcribed gene being deleted in which the expression cassette is a U6 expression cassette that includes the human U6 snRNP enhancer, promoter and at least the first 3 nucleotides but no more than about 7 nucleotides and about the last 18 nucleotides of the U6 5′ transcribed region operably linked to the antisense EGFR nucleotide sequence, wherein said sequence of an EGFR gene has at least about 20 consecutive nucleotides and said sequence of an EGFR gene is selected from nucleotides 172-209 of SEQ ID NO: 1 and further wherein the composition is a liposome or liposome-forming composition comprising 3β[N-(N′,N′-dimethylaminoethane)-carbamoyl]cholesterol.