Patent ID: 7829292

Claim:
A method for predicting the response of a subject with autoimmune sensorineural hearing loss to immunosuppressive steroid therapy, comprising: a. providing: i), synthetic or recombinant CTL2 protein reactive with a KHRI-3 monoclonal antibody; and ii) serum from a subject with autoimmune sensorineural hearing loss; b. contacting said synthetic or recombinant CTL2 protein with said serum under conditions sufficient to effect binding of CTL2-specific antibodies, if present in said serum, to said CTL2 protein; c. identifying the presence of said CTL2-specific antibodies in said serum by detecting binding of said antibodies to said CTL2 protein; and d. correlating the presence or absence of said binding to the likelihood of said subject to respond to immunosuppressive steroid therapy wherein detection of binding of said antibodies to said CTL2 protein is indicative of a subject more likely to respond to immunosuppressive therapy compared to a subject from whom binding of said antibodies to said CTL2 protein is not detected.