Patent ID: 8426194

Claim:
A method for screening candidate compounds for a compound that modulates human vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) mRNA translation that is regulated by the untranslated regions of human VEGF mRNA, comprising: a. contacting a compound with a cell engineered to stably express a reporter protein encoded by an mRNA transcript comprising a reporter gene coding sequence operably linked to a fragment of a human VEGF 5′ UTR encoded by the sequence of SEQ ID NO:3 and a human VEGF 3′ UTR, wherein the fragment of the human VEGF 5′ UTR is upstream of the reporter gene coding sequence and the human VEGF 3′ UTR is downstream of the reporter gene coding sequence, and wherein the mRNA transcript does not comprise SEQ ID NO:4 or a fragment thereof; and b. detecting the amount or activity of the reporter protein, wherein a change in the amount or activity of the reporter protein in the presence of the compound relative to the amount or activity of the reporter protein in the absence of the compound indicates that the compound modulates human VEGF mRNA translation that is regulated by the untranslated regions of human VEGF mRNA.