Patent ID: 7393655

Claim:
A process for determining whether a chemical compound is a human melanin concentrating hormone (MCH1) receptor antagonist which comprises contacting cells transfected with and expressing DNA encoding the human MCH1 receptor with the compound in the presence of a known human MCH1 receptor agonist, and contacting cells separately with only the agonist, under conditions permitting the activation of the human MCH1 receptor, and detecting a decrease in human MCH1 receptor activity compared to cells contacted only with the agonist, so as to thereby determine whether the compound is a human MCH1 receptor antagonist; wherein the human MCH1 receptor is encoded by an isolated nucleic acid having consecutive nucleotides having 1) the sequence beginning with the start codon at positions 1-3, and ending at the stop codon at positions 1267-1269 as indicated in FIG. 1 (SEQ ID NO: 1) or 2) the sequence beginning with the start codon at positions 16-18, and ending at the stop codon at positions 1267-1269 as indicated in FIG. 1 (SEQ ID NO: 1) and wherein the human MCH1 receptor is activated by melanin concentrating hormone.