Patent ID: 7169604

Claim:
A method for selectively inhibiting degradation of IκBα within a targeted collection of viable cells in-situ, said method comprising the steps of: identifying a collection of cells comprising viable cells in-situ as a target for inhibiting IκBα degradation; providing means for effecting an introduction of at least one member selected from the group consisting of the PR-39 oligopeptide collective to the cytoplasm of said targeted collection of cells; introducing at least one member of the PR-39 oligopeptide collective to the cytoplasm of said targeted collection of cells using said effecting means; allowing said introduced PR-39 oligopeptide collective member to interact with at least some of the proteasomes present within the cytoplasm of said targeted collection of cells; waiting for at least a part of the proteolytic activity mediated by said proteasomes to become selectively altered by said interaction with said PR-39 oligopeptide collective member; and permitting the selectively altered proteolytic activity of said proteasomes to result in a marked inhibition of IκBα degradation in-situ while the proteolytic degradation mediated by said proteasomes against other individual peptides remains unaltered within the cytoplasm of said targeted collection of viable cells.