Patent ID: 7374889

Claim:
A method of determining whether a candidate compound is an inhibitor of a human sphingosine-1-phosphate phosphatase comprising: (a) providing host cells harboring an expression vector that includes a polynucleotide selected from the group consisting of: (i) a polynucleotide encoding a polypeptide having the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2, and (ii) a polynucleotide having the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO: 1, (b) contacting said cells with the candidate compound to permit the interaction of the candidate compound with the human sphingosine-1-phosphate phosphatase polypeptide, and (c) determining whether the candidate compound is an inhibitor of said human sphingosine-1-phosphate phosphatase polypeptide by ascertaining the activity of the human sphingosine-1-phosphate phosphatase polypeptide in the presence of the candidate compound and comparing said activity to a measurement of the human sphingosine-1-phosphate phosphatase polypeptide activity of the cells before step (b).