Patent ID: 7700300

Claim:
A method of screening a conjugate or conjugate moiety for the capacity to be transported through the blood brain barrier, comprising: (a) providing a cell expressing the GAT2 transporter, wherein the GAT2 transporter is the protein encoded by SEQ ID NO: 1 or has at least 90% sequence identity to the protein encoded by SEQ ID NO: 1, and the GAT2 transporter can transport GABA, the transporter being situated in the plasma membrane of the cell; (b) contacting the cell with a conjugate or conjugate moiety; (c) determining whether the conjugate or conjugate moiety passes through the plasma membrane via the GAT2 transporter, passage through the plasma membrane via the GAT2 transporter indicating that the conjugate or conjugate moiety has the capacity to be transported through the blood brain barrier; (d) if step (b) comprises contacting the cell with a conjugate moiety and step (c) determines that the conjugate moiety passes through the plasma membrane via the GAT2 transporter, then linking the conjugate moiety to a neuropharmaceutical agent or to an imaging component to form a conjugate and repeating steps (a) through (c) with the conjugate; and (e) administering the conjugate or conjugate moiety to a peripheral tissue of an animal and measuring the amount of conjugate or conjugate moiety that passes through the blood brain barrier into the brain of the animal; wherein the conjugate comprises a conjugate moiety linked to a neuropharmaceutical agent or to an imaging component.