Patent ID: 6855512

Claim:
A method identifying a compound which is an inhibitor of the enzyme P450RAI, the method comprising: selecting a compound that has activity as a retinoid in an art recognized assay which demonstrates retinoid-like activity; the retinoid compound including a moiety selected from the group consisting of benzoic acid, benzoic acid ester, naphthoic acid, naphthoic acid ester, heteroaryl carboxylic acid and heteroaryl carboxylic acid ester, with a partial structure of —A(R 2 )—(Ch 2 ) n —COOR 8 where n is 0, A is a phenyl or naphthyl group, or heteroaryl selected from a group consisting of pyridyl, thienyl, furyl, pyridazinyl, pyrimidinyl, pyrazinyl, thiazolyl, oxazolyl, imidazolyl and pyrrazoly, said phenyl, naphthyl and heteroaryl groups being optionally substituted with one or two R 2 groups; R 2 is independently H, alkyl of 1 of 6 carbons, F, Cl, Br, I, CF 3 , fluoro substituted alkyl of 1 of 6 carbons, —CH 2 O(C 1-6 -alkyl), or a cation of a pharmaceutically acceptable base, and further selecting a compound that is a homolog of the selected retinoid compound where in the formula of the homolog n is 1 or 2 which compound is identified as an inhibitor of cytochrome P450RAI.