Patent Document ID: 20070269834
Application ID: 11827425
Patent Flag: 0

Claim One:
1. A method for selecting a drug candidate agent or composition of more than one drug candidate agent of possible clinical value in the treatment of a neurological disease selected from the closed group consisting of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, familial Alzheimer's disease, familial Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, spinal muscular atrophy, Friedreich's ataxia, giant axon neuropathy, juvenile ceroid-lipofuscinosis, familial motor neuron diseases, juvenile diabetic polyneuropathy and Down's syndrome comprising a. establishing, from a patient having a predetermined neurological disease selected from the closed group consisting of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, familial Alzheimer's disease, familial Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, spinal muscular atrophy, Friedreich's ataxia, giant axon neuropathy, juvenile ceroid-lipofuscinosis, familial motor neuron diseases, juvenile diabetic polyneuropathy and Down's syndrome, a cell culture of fibroblast cells; b. establishing, from a person not having the predetermined neurological disease, a control cell culture of fibroblast cells; c. subsequent concomitant cell culture growth of (1) a cell culture of fibroblast cells originally obtained from the patient having a predetermined neurological disease selected from the closed group consisting of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, familial Alzheimer's disease, familial Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, spinal muscular atrophy, Friedreich's ataxia, giant axon neuropathy, juvenile ceroid-lipofuscinosis, familial motor neuron diseases, juvenile diabetic polyneuropathy and Down's syndrome; (2) a control cell culture of fibroblast cells originally obtained from a person not having the predetermined neurological disease; (3) a cell culture of fibroblast cells originally obtained from the patient having a predetermined neurological disease selected from the closed group consisting of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, familial Alzheimer's disease, familial Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, spinal muscular atrophy, Friedreich's ataxia, giant axon neuropathy, juvenile ceroid-lipofuscinosis, familial motor neuron diseases, juvenile diabetic polyneuropathy and Down's syndrome grown in the presence of an agent being investigated; (4) a control cell culture of fibroblast cells originally obtained from a person not having the predetermined neurological disease grown in the presence of an agent being investigated; (5) a control cell culture of fibroblast cells originally obtained from a person not having the predetermined neurological disease grown in the presence of a chemical stress protein-inducing parameter; and (6) a control cell culture of fibroblast cells originally obtained from a person not having the predetermined neurological disease grown in the presence of the stress protein-inducing parameter and the agent being investigated; and d. use of an indicator system for explicitly measuring stress protein expression or other protein modifications indicative of oxidative stress in said cultured fibroblast cells to identify as a drug candidate of possible clinical value that agent which does not prevent chemically induced stress protein expression or other protein modifications indicative of oxidative stress in the control cell culture as per step c(6) but which does prevent stress protein expression or other protein modifications indicative of oxidative stress in the patient cell culture as per step c(3).