Patent ID: 7833720

Claim:
A method for diagnosing whether a human subject is likely to have irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), comprising: (a) contacting a mRNA-derived nucleic acid sample obtained from a human subject suspected of having IBS under hybridizing conditions with at least four nucleotide probes, wherein a first nucleotide probe consists of 15 or more contiguous nucleotides of SEQ ID NO:3 (BLCAP) or a full complement thereof, a second nucleotide probe consists of 15 or more contiguous nucleotides of SEQ ID NO:4 (TH1L) or a full complement thereof, a third nucleotide probe consists of 15 or more contiguous nucleotides of SEQ ID NO:9 (HIST1H2BK) or a full complement thereof, and a fourth nucleotide probe consists of 15 or more contiguous nucleotides of a nucleic acid selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NO:6 (CALM3) or a full complement thereof and SEQ ID NO:5 (UBE2G1) or a full complement thereof; (b) detecting formation of hybridization complexes between the probes and the nucleic acid targets in the nucleic acid sample, wherein the hybridization complexes provide a measure of gene expression of the nucleic acid targets; and (c) diagnosing whether the human subject is likely to have IBS based on the measure of gene expression of the nucleic acid targets, wherein gene expression levels of the nucleic acid targets differentiate between IBS and normal.