Inflammation reporter system
AssigneesTransgenic Inc., National University Corporation Kumamoto University, National University Corporation Gunma University
InventorsKenichi Yamamura, Takao Iwawaki, Daisuke Oikawa, Tomoo Ishikawa
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Abstract
The present invention provides a method for detection of an inflammatory reaction, which comprises using a transformant or transgenic non-human animal transfected with a vector comprising a promoter for a gene encoding an inflammatory cytokine, a gene encoding a reporter protein, a gene encoding the inflammatory cytokine, and a gene encoding a proteolytic signal sequence to thereby detect an inflammatory reaction induced upon inflammatory stimulation in the transformant or in the transgenic non-human animal.
Claims11
A vector comprising an inflammatory cytokine promoter operably linked to a nucleotide sequence comprising a gene encoding a luciferase reporter protein, a gene encoding an inflammatory cytokine, wherein the inflammatory cytokine is a mouse-derived IL-1β partial sequence consisting of amino acids 17-216, and a gene encoding a proteolytic signal sequence,
- wherein the luciferase reporter protein, the inflammatory cytokine and the proteolytic signal sequence are configured as a fusion protein, wherein the inflammatory cytokine is N-terminal to the proteolytic signal sequence and C-terminal to the luciferase reporter protein, and
- wherein, in the presence of inflammatory stimulation, the inflammatory cytokine promoter becomes functional to thereby activate the expression of the nucleotide sequence and the inflammatory cytokine is cleavable by caspase-1 to separate the luciferase reporter protein from the proteolytic signal sequence while retaining luciferase activity.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.