Patent ID: 8110372

Claim:
A method of detecting, in a test sample, the presence of a modulator of zalpha11 polypeptide activity, the method comprising: (a) culturing a cell into which has been introduced an expression vector comprising the following operably linked elements: (i) a transcription promoter; (ii) a DNA segment encoding a polypeptide consisting of an amino acid sequence as shown in SEQ ID NO:2 from amino acid number 20 (Cys), to amino acid number 538 (Ser); and (iii) a transcription terminator, wherein the promoter is operably linked to the DNA segment, and the DNA segment is operably linked to the transcription terminator; and wherein the cell expresses the polypeptide encoded by the DNA segment in the presence and absence of a test sample; (b) comparing levels of activity of the polypeptide in the presence and absence of a test sample, by a biological or biochemical assay, wherein the biological or biochemical assay comprises the zalpha11 polypeptide exhibiting cell proliferation activity or signal transduction activity when exposed to activated CD3+ selected human T-cell conditioned media, thereby detecting the presence of the modulator of zalpha11 polypeptide activity; and (c) determining from the comparison the presence of the modulator of zalpha11 polypeptide activity in the test sample.