Patent ID: 7045294

Claim:
A method of identifying a compound that decreases or inhibits site-1 protease promoter activity, the method comprising: providing a cell comprising a recombinant construct comprising a promoter sequence operably linked to a reporter gene, wherein the promoter sequence comprises (a) the nucleotide sequence set forth as SEQ ID NO:2, or a fragment thereof exhibiting site-1 protease promoter activity, or (b) a nucleic acid sequence that exhibits site-1 protease promoter activity and hybridizes to SEQ ID NO:2 under conditions of hybridization in 0.5 M NaHPO 4 , 7% sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), 1 mM EDTA at 65° C., and washing in 0.1×SSC/0.1% SDS at 68° C.; contacting the cell with a candidate agent; assaying expression of the reporter gene in the cell; and determining whether the candidate agent decreases or inhibits expression of the reporter gene, as compared to control level of expression of the reporter gene in the cell in the absence of the candidate agent, wherein a decrease or inhibition of expression of the reporter gene indicates that the candidate agent is a compound that decreases or inhibits site-1 protease promoter activity.