Patent ID: 7531356

Claim:
An in vitro method for identifying an agent that can alter the activity of the human CRF 2α receptor promoter, the method comprising the steps of: (a) providing a host cell in vitro that comprises a vector comprising a polynucleotide and a heterologous reporter gene operably linked to the polynucleotide, the polynucleotide being selected from the group consisting of nucleotides 46 to 3943 of SEQ ID NO:2, nucleotides 539 to 3943 of SEQ ID NO:2, nucleotides 1061 to 3943 of SEQ ID NO:2, nucleotides 1598 to 3943 of SEQ ID NO:2, nucleotides 2038 to 3943 of SEQ ID NO:2, nucleotides 2569 to 3943 of SEQ ID NO:2, nucleotides 3104 to 3943 of SEQ ID NO:2, nucleotides 3598 to 3943 of SEQ ID NO:2, nucleotides 3649 to 3943 of SEQ ID NO:2, nucleotides 3739 to 3943 of SEQ ID NO:2, and nucleotides 3840 to 3943 of SEQ ID NO:2; (b) exposing the cell to a test agent; and (c) measuring and comparing the reporter gene expression level to that of a control cell that is not exposed to the test agent wherein a higher or lower expression level than that of the control cell indicates that the agent can alter the activity of the human CRF 2α receptor promoter.