Patent ID: 7105485

Claim:
A heme oxygenase-1 suppressor (HOS) factor, said HOS factor having the activity of attenuating an increase in heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) occurring in response to exposure to an experimental agent or treatment of oxidative stress, said HOS factor by: subjecting a tissue or body fluid sample derived from a patient suffering from a dementing disease to affinity chromatography using one or a sequential combination of a heparin-agarose column, a concanavallin-A (Con-A) agarose column, or a Superose™-12 column; eluting fractions of the sample and selecting those fractions containing protein having a molecular weight in the range of 80–100 kDa as determined from an elution profile of protein standards with known molecular weight; and assaying the selected fractions eluted from affinity chromatography for HOS activity by assessing ex vivo the capacity of said fractions to attenuate an increase in the level of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) occurring in response to an experimental agent or treatment of oxidative stress, wherein said HOS factor maintains attenuation of HO-1 activity even when exposed to an antioxidant.