Patent ID: 7981598

Claim:
A method of screening for a potential prophylactic/therapeutic agent for respiratory diseases, which comprises: (i) culturing a cell expressing a protein in the presence and absence of a test compound and measuring cholesterol hydroxylation activity of the protein, wherein the protein comprises (a) the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2 or (b) an amino acid sequence having at least 90% identity to the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 2 and having cholesterol hydroxylation activity, or a salt thereof; (ii) comparing the measured cholesterol hydroxylation activity of the protein in the presence of the test compound with the measured activity of the protein in the absence of the test compound; (iii) selecting the test compound which decreases cholesterol hydroxylation activity of the protein by at least 20%; (iv) measuring and comparing the production of inflammatory cytokines in the presence and absence of the test compound selected in step (iii); and (v) selecting the test compound which decreases the production of inflammatory cytokines as the prophylactic/therapeutic agent for respiratory diseases.