Patent ID: 7445890

Claim:
A method for screening for a compound or its salt that promotes or inhibits a human UCP-2 promoter activity, which comprises: a. measuring the expression level of a reporter molecule in a transformant, with a DNA consisting of a human UCP-2 promoter sequence and a base sequence encoding the reporter molecule inserted downstream of the human UCP-2 promoter, contacted to a first sample of the compound or its salt and that in a control transformant, with a DNA consisting of a base sequence encoding the reporter molecule but with no DNA consisting of human UCP-2 promoter, contacted to a second sample of the compound or its salt, wherein the human UCP-2 promoter sequence consists of (1) a base sequence consisting of nucleotides 1 to 2270 of SEQ ID NO: 1, or (2) a base sequence selected from the group consisting of nucleotides 255 to 430 of SEQ ID NO: 1, nucleotides 255 to 717 of SEQ ID NO: 1, nucleotides 717 to 1133 of SEQ ID NO: 1, nucleotides 1133 to 1389 of SEQ ID NO: 1, nucleotides 255 to 1857 of SEQ ID NO: 1, nucleotides 571 to 2270 of SEQ ID NO: 1, nucleotides 717 to 2270 of SEQ ID NO: 1, nucleotides 1133 to 2270 of SEQ ID NO: 1, nucleotides 1389 to 2270 of SEQ ID NO: 1, and nucleotides 1634 to 2270 of SEQ ID NO: 1; and b. comparing the expression levels thereof.