Patent ID: 7060449

Claim:
A method of preparing a composition which comprises: (a) identifying a chemical compound which specifically binds to a human or rat galanin receptor (GALR2) which comprises contacting cells transfected with DNA encoding and expressing on their cell surface the human or rat galanin receptor (GALR2), or a membrane fraction of such cells, wherein such cells prior to being transfected with such DNA do not express the human galanin receptor (GALR2), with the compound under conditions suitable for binding, and detecting specific binding of the chemical compound to the human or rat qalanin receptor (GALR2), and (b) if said compound binds to the receptor, recovering said compound free of any receptor, and (c) admixing said compound with a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier; wherein the human galanin receptor (GALR2) has an amino acid sequence identical to that (a) shown in SEQ ID NO: 5,(b) expressed by COS-7 cells transfected with plasmid BO29 (ATCC Accession No. 97735) or (c) expressed by COS-7 cells transfected with plasmid BO39 (ATCC Accession No. 97851), and the rat qalanin receptor (GALR2) has an amino acid sequence identical to that (a) shown in SEQ ID NO: 2, (b) expressed by LM(tk−) cells transfected with plasmid K985 (ATCC Accession No. 97426) ox (c) expressed by LM(tk−) cells transfected with plasmid K1045 (ATCC Accession No. 97778).