Patent ID: 7749720

Claim:
A method of identifying a candidate insulin sensitizing compound, the method comprising: (a) contacting a GRK2 molecule with Gαq/11 to form an assay mixture, wherein the GRK2 molecule is GRK2 or biologically-active fragment of GRK2 that has an inhibitory action on insulin signaling, (b) contacting the assay mixture with a test compound, and (c) determining the ability of the GRK2 molecule to preferentially bind to Gαq/11, wherein determining comprises (i) incubating the assay mixture in (b) under conditions conducive to formation of a binding complex of the GRK2 molecule and Gαq/11; (ii) removing unbound components from the assay mixture; and (iii) determining the amount of complex formed, wherein an interaction of the test compound with GRK2 to decrease binding of Gαq/11 with GRK2 compared to binding in absence of the test compound indicates that the test compound is an insulin sensitizing compound.