Patent ID: 7029864

Claim:
A method for detecting caspase activity comprising reacting a one or more cleavage products of vimentin with an antibody specific for said one or more cleavage products and detecting the one or more resulting reaction products; wherein said antibody reacts with said one or more cleavage products of vimentin, obtained by the action of caspase which cleaves intact vimentin between Asp-259 and Val-260, but wherein said antibody does not react with intact vimentin, and said one or more cleavage products of vimentin is selected from the group consisting of a polypeptide consisting of the amino acid sequence from the amino acid at position 1 to the amino acid at position 259 and a polypeptide consisting of the amino acid sequence from the amino acid at position 86 to the amino acid at position 259 in the sequence shown in SEQ ID NO:3 or SEQ ID NO:4, or said one or more cleavage products of vimentin is selected from the group consisting of a polypeptide consisting of a polypeptide consisting of the amino acid sequence from the amino acid at position 260 to the amino acid at position 466 and a polypeptide consisting of the amino acid sequence from the amino acid at position 260 to the amino acid at position 429 of the amino acid sequence shown in SEQ ID NO:3 or SEQ ID NO:4, wherein the detection of said one or more resulting reaction products indicates the presence of said caspase activity.